Zhan Wang

Zhan Wang's work “Not Touching Prevent Complete Blackness” presented at C5CNM uses a standard conceptual art format, where the artist's ideas, i.e., the rules and paths for executing the work, are listed sequentially through text in the window of the gallery window. It should be noted that this is not a labeling of the work. For a conceptual artist, the idea, that is, the words, is the work itself, which is complete in itself and does not necessarily need to be, nor is it necessarily possible to be, realize.

   brush marks do not touch.

   first come first serve

   work from the largest brush to the smallest

   one mark occupies one spot

The concept realized on-site is a square cube white box of 2.4m x 2.4m x 2.4m, similar in scale to the exhibition space. The interior of the box is blackened with black interior paint based on the law that each brush mark does not touch each other. Starting with the largest row of strokes, following one stroke as in calligraphy, without tracing or drawing, each stroke and the next follow the logic of the “unplanned occupation spot” from any point to the edge, until there is no more blank space left for continued using the same brush. At this point, the brush is replaced by a smaller, suitable brush to continue to occupy the space, and after this size of the brush cannot help, then switch to a smaller brush, and so on, and always strictly adhere to the principle of the brush marks do not touch. Theoretically, this is a wall that will never be blackened, or a space that will never be fully occupied. “Not Touching Prevent Complete Blackness” can only reach its fullness in the world of imagined concepts. In reality, it's an addictive spot occupation game, a surprisingly photogenic backdrop.

Translated with DeepL.com