Zhang Huan

Zhang was born in Anyang, Henan Province[2] and named Dong Ming (Chinese: 東明; pinyin: Dōng Míng) as a tribute to Chairman Mao.

[3] Zhang Huan helped to establish a small artistic community known as the Beijing East Village,[4] located on the margins of the city.

The group of friends from art school pioneered this particular brand of performance in China and Zhang was often reprimanded by officials for the perceived inappropriateness of his actions.

For example, for 12 Square Meters (1994),[6] the accompanying photography exhibit showed him as "a naked man, his head half-shaved, sitting in a prison-like space.

Zhang continued his naked performance art in the United States with Pilgrimage — Wind and Water in New York (1998)[10] and My America (Hard to Acclimatize) (1999).

The other, a crumbling sculpture made from over 20 tonnes of incense ash, which was collected from Buddhist temples in Shanghai and across China’s Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

"[16] Of Sydney Buddha, the artist said: "The piece conveys the collective memory, soul, thoughts and prayers, and collapse of mankind.

Among the topics [Zhang] has addressed, in some 40 performances, are the power of unified action to challenge oppressive political regimes; the status and plight of the expatriate in the new global culture; the persistence of structures of faith in communities undermined by violent conflict; and the place of censorship in contemporary democracy.

Thom Collins described the piece in a biographical writeup for the 2004 group exhibition Witness at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney: "This work, a startling and visceral commentary on the Chinese government mandate of abortions for women conceiving more than the legal limit of one child, led to a quick closure of the exhibition and serious censure of the artist.

[6] "Zhang Huan spread on his body a visceral liquid of fish and honey to attract the flies in the public restroom in the village.

During the work, Zhang would have three calligraphers write a combination of names known to him, personal stories, learned tales and random thoughts.

The actual act of ringing the bell is supposed to represent the "artistic struggle with the circumstances of and inheritance from family is both necessarily violent and richly generative.