Zhan Wang

Intermaterial Entanglement and Innermaterial Enlightenment: Contemporary Art of ZHAN Wang

GAO Minglu

ZHAN Wang's sculptures have transcended the traditional notion of carving and modeling a single material. Instead, he brings together two seemingly unrelated approaches in contemporary art, readymades and handicrafts. He refers to this methodology as "sculpture that is not sculpture." The ready-made elements are stones that he selects, primarily various types of Taihu stones from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, which serve as latent sculptural prototypes. The handcrafted components involve a complex process, invented by the artist, of molding sheets of stainless steel around Taihu stones to reproduce them. But this is not passive mold replication; rather, through fabrication, he vitalizes the aesthetic charm and cultural richness of the Taihu stones. More importantly, throughout his creative processes, the paradox between what is real and what is fake, between fantasy and reality, has been a recurring theme of his artistic expression.

To summarize the evolution of his creative methods over the past three decades, I have coined two terms: intermaterial entanglement and innermaterial enlightenment.

"Intermaterial entanglement" is the entanglement between objects that is rooted in craftsmanship, the soul, the "artist." ZHAN Wang lets the stainless steel sheets get entangled with and embrace the infinitely variable scholar's rocks, recreating the rock formations with industrial, hard steel plates and excavating their character.

The first work that reflects intermaterial entanglement is Ultimate Nature, created in 1995. It is comprised of two stones, one a genuine white marble, the other a "fake"—a replica crafted from the same material. Although identical in both substance and appearance, the two white marbles differ in that one comes from nature while the other is artificial. Thus, the natural one is the real one.

This was the artist's first attempt to express the paradox of real and fake through fantasy and reality, a theme that would later be found in his well-known series of Artificial Rocks made of stainless steel. This series features Taihu stones, Lingbi stones from Lingbi, Anhui province, and other types of stones that are commonly referred to as scholar's rocks (artificial mountain rocks). Instead of duplicating each artificial rock with a mold, ZHAN Wang created an alternative, illusory version of Taihu stones with handcrafted stainless steel. The polished steel surfaces added another layer of bizarrely dazzling reflection to the rich forms of Taihu stones. In doing so, the artist provided a third space, beyond the real and the fake, both for audience to view and for their imagination to run wild.

Ultimate Nature，1995

Artificial Rock No.1，1995

Generally, ZHAN Wang's intermaterial entanglement focuses more on the relationship between art and real objects, which is between art and the external world. In contrast, "innermaterial enlightenment" turns inward, a concept that attempts to develop a mutable space from the inside out, thereby reshaping the structure of the sculptures in the round. His latest series Collapsed Geometry takes a rational approach to analyzing the internal elements of objects, such as black holes, fundamental particles, and the mass of volcanic ash. At the same time, it provokes philosophical thoughts and questions on the relationship between nominality and reality, appearances and substance.

In the series Collapsed Geometry, the internal structure of the raw material is disrupted through techniques like drilling, hollowing, and interposing, making spaces intertwined with each other. The end results are unpredictable sculptural forms, which then give rise to various caves, passages, or even entirely independent spaces nested in the original form. One striking example is Sectioned Square.

ZHAN employs a variety of sectioning techniques—parallel circular cuts, intersecting cross-shaped circular cuts, and multi-directional circular cuts. Many of his sculptures also feature tunnels that look like they have been dug, such as in Let There Be A Tunnel. However, he didn't dig them. The tunnels were formed when the cylinder-shaped void intersected with the natural cavities of the Taihu stone, making hollows out of both the cylinder and the holes. This created a spatial structure of "holes containing holes and emptiness meeting emptiness."

Sectioned Square，2025

Let There Be A Tunnel，2025

These square sectionings both inside and outside seem to be hollowing out the sculpture itself, with the purpose of inviting a flowing source of air, of breathing life into itself. In other works, he took a single stone, bisected it, molded stainless steel around the two smaller stones, and bisected them again, repeating this process many times. In the end, he created pieces of stainless steel of varying sizes and forms, which were then reassembled into "particles." When the components of the "particles" were joined together, they became an infinite number of extendable sky-reaching towers (Beyond Infinity). From one to many, from many back to one.

Form of Particles No.5，2022

Beyond Infinity No.4,5,6，2025

Intermaterial entanglement and innermaterial enlightenment are ZHAN Wang's unique methodological perspectives. They hold innovative significance in this era, because when contemporary artists emphasize the readymades (including ready-made images) and concepts on the opposing ends of a spectrum while overlooking the role of handicrafts, ZHAN Wang has charted a "middle path," integrating readymades, concepts, and craftsmanship. While traditional sculptures in the round have either been consumed by installations or been made subordinate to others, ZHAN Wang remains committed to developing the contemporaneity of these sculptures from within. This contemporaneity emphasizes the pressing need in today's world for interactions where the body participates. Intermaterial entanglement and innermaterial enlightenment represent the embodied contemplation of the artist's close interaction with objects and life, where the entangled affinity between the "person, objects, and environment" has replaced the conventional separation between realism, abstraction, and concepts. Thus, his works have taken a form of sculpture that is not sculpture, and that transcends traditional definitions.

From "Intermaterial Entanglement" to "Innermaterial Enlightenment": On ZHAN Wang's New Piece Collapsed Geometry

What does the title of ZHAN Wang's new exhibition, "Collapsed Geometry," mean? To collapse is to fall down and shrink, a process of deformation, which, however, does not disrupt the fundamental geometric forms. These concepts can be seen in the video (2016-2025) and volcanic rocks (2019-2024) of his Collapsed Geometry. Collaborating with mathematicians in 2016, ZHAN Wang developed software based on fluid dynamics to simulate volcanic eruptions. They even placed a digitized version of the artist himself into the simulated lava, aiming to recreate nature in an authentic manner. The video and sculptures are essentially one; the former records how ZHAN Wang deformed the geometric plaster statues, while the latter shows how the deformed objects are reproduced with volcanic ash materials.

Collapsed Geometry, 2016-2025, Single-channel video, Color, silent, 1'27''

Collapsed Geometry, 2019-2024, Volcanic rock, Dimensions variable, in 16 parts

"ZHAN Wang: Collapsed Geometry" Exhibition View, 2025, Eslite Gallery, Beijing

Why does ZHAN Wang choose geometry as his subject? It stems from the fact that the modeling training at art academies begins with sketching geometric plaster statues. And why geometric forms? As the fundamental elements of everything in the universe, geometric forms are not only used to train art students' skills, but also material for mental exercises that cultivate observational abilities and an understanding of the structural logic behind all forms.

But can drawing geometric casts truly cultivate an artist's capacity for perfect expression? Instead of giving a direct answer, ZHAN Wang says, "Geometric plaster figures do not equate to geometry." Indeed, geometry is the science that studies how the spatial logic of forms works, and any science must adhere to certain laws. Geometry categorizes all things into different types of standard forms, and the relationships between them follow patterns, from which a range of widely applicable mathematical principles can be deduced. Thus, geometric forms themselves must be self-contained, self-regulating, and therefore, perfect.

From this perspective, the very notion of "collapsed geometry" is a paradox, for anyone who can be called a geometer can create logically rigorous and impeccable theories. From the Pythagorean theorem, Euclid's Elements, to Riemannian geometry that provides the mathematical framework for general relativity, geometry is founded on impeccable principles. To be impeccable means to be flawless. Therefore, geometry cannot "collapse." Every geometric shape embodies a universal principle, and universality is synonymous with perfection.

It then follows that geometry cannot collapse; if it did, it would cease to be geometry. It would be a paradox in the same way that Nietzsche's declaration that "God is dead" is regarded as a paradox, for God is eternal and will not die. If God were to die, then he would no longer be God.

However, every so-called "perfect" thing has its shortcomings. Any perfect geometry form possesses inherent limitations. Every geometric axiom is, in fact, a temporary consensus, only to lay the groundwork for the deductive reasoning of newer, "more" perfect axioms. Therefore, from this perspective, collapse becomes plausible. Especially, if we transfer "collapsed geometry" into the realm of artistic principles, this paradox becomes reasonable. This is because in art, perfection comes from what is left unsaid, and the "perfection" of art arises not from flawless geometric logic, but rather from the imagination triggered by the imperfections of language.

Therefore, when ZHAN Wang says geometric plaster figures do not equate to geometry, he is pointing to the way that geometric plaster casts idolize geometric forms.[1] In other words, it is problematic for geometric plaster casts to reduce all things in the world to static, standardized forms. In fact, he raised this issue as early as 2009, using slanting shapes to challenge Cézanne's view that geometric shapes represented the essence of nature. Slanting signifies movement, uncertainty, and instability, which are also the essence of nature. In his Dual System (2009), ZHAN Wang questioned the static and standardized formal rules of modernism, which should be seen as the precursor to "collapsed geometry."

To him, "geometry" represents axioms that can be revised. ZHAN Wang also attempts to establish an axiom, or a boundary or rule, for himself when he creates art, in order to limit his desire and scope for free expression. As he has once said, "If you want freedom, you must first set rules for yourself. The clearer the limitations, the more freedom you'll get." [2] Geometry is a symbol for limitations, while collapse is freedom.

Zhan Wang: Objects of Idea, 2020, Long March Space, Beijing

In fact, before ZHAN Wang proposed the paradox of "collapsed geometry," he had never strayed from the theme of "paradox" throughout his creation over the past three decades. It is just that the previous paradoxes primarily revolved around how art represented the reality of the external world, where the real and the fake were perpetually in dialogue and negotiation in his works. This is true in both his early realistic sculptures, small installations, performance art, and the extensive stainless steel artificial mountain rocks later on.

One example is his Sidewalk series in 1990. He aimed to challenge the concepts and forms that had dominated sculpture for many years, seeking to break free from traditional monumental sculpture and bring "freestanding sculpture" back to reality. He removed the pedestal from traditional, realistic monumental sculpture and placed "people" back into the streets in real life. At that time, ZHAN Wang was contemplating issues closely related to real life.

In Temptation: Mao Suit series (1994), ZHAN Wang no longer focused on realism, but added symbolic elements instead. The Mao suit serves as both a cultural signifier and a human's shell. When the artist distorted it into an abstract representation in the form of a "sculpture," the unreal shape paradoxically conveys the true social mood of that era.

Shell of Mao Suits series, 1994

Ultimate Nature, 1995

ZHAN Wang's Ultimate Nature (1995) is comprised of two stones, one a genuine white marble, the other a "fake"—a replica crafted from the same material. This was the artist's first attempt to express the paradox of real and fake through fantasy and reality, a theme that would later be found in his well-known series of artificial rocks made of stainless steel. (This series features Taihu stones from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, Lingbi stones from Lingbi, Anhui province, and other types of stones that are commonly referred to as artificial mountain rocks.) On the surface, ZHAN Wang replicated one object with another. However, his attempt is not an imitation in the classical sense that strives to reproduce the original in material, form, or even meaning, nor is it a postmodern direct appropriation of images that typically carries an ironic undertone. What ZHAN Wang did is let polished stainless steel sheets get "entangled" with and "embrace" the infinitely variable artificial mountain rocks. To recreate both the image and character of the rocks with industrial, hard steel plates is a task undoubtedly many times more challenging than using Xuan paper to make rubbings of stone inscriptions. Instead of duplicating each artificial rock with a mold, ZHAN Wang created an alternative, illusory version of Taihu stones with handcrafted stainless steel. Stainless steel is an excellent material for expressing illusions; it allows the artist to create a third space, beyond the real and the fake, both for audience to view and for their imagination to run wild. I refer to this method of entanglement between materials as "intermaterial entanglement," something that cannot be achieved by an artist through imitation, replication, and reproduction based on wishful thinking. On the contrary, for ZHAN Wang, intermaterial entanglement is rooted in craftsmanship, which is the true soul, the "artist." As I wrote in another article on ZHAN Wang's art, returning to craftsmanship in this era serves as a corrective to the current trend in contemporary art that is overly obsessed with conceptual verification.[3]

I. Collapse and Soft Geometry

Although ZHAN Wang's latest series Collapsed Geometry continues to explore the paradox of real and fake, his focus is shifted from the relationship between art and material, and art and the external reality to art itself. Specifically, it emphasizes the philosophical issues of the nominality and reality, appearance and substance of sculptures. Therefore, it seems that Collapsed Geometry aims at peeling away the aesthetic veneer and rationally analyzing the internal elements of objects, such as black holes, fundamental particles, and the mass of volcanic ash.

Phantom, 2025, Spotlight, stainless steel, crushed stone from the original natural rock, Dimension variable

For instance, in Phantom (2025), a beam of light is directed at a stainless steel cast of a stone, creating a shadow where the original stone is placed after being shattered. This visual composition presents us with the artist's empirical attempts on the appearance and substance of a stone. In this context, the appearance and substance clearly point to questions of real and fake, and quality and quantity, which might fall under the study of geometry. And here, geometry seems to have become an invisible judge of perfection and imperfection.

Nothing is absolutely perfect in the world; the concept of absolute perfection does not refer solely to a single object, but rather to the relativity between objects and the state of their existence within the vast universe. One could argue that if something were absolutely perfect, it would not be able to engage in relationships with other things in the universe. It would then exist in isolation, lonely, cold, high above anything else and beyond the reach of humanity. Only with flaws and imperfections can objects begin to interact, as it is precisely the flaws and incompleteness that create the need for complementary relationships with others. From this perspective, flaws and deficiencies are the driving forces behind the continuous evolution of both the natural universe and the human world. The concepts of "differentiated intention," "absence," and the "being of non-being" that I proposed in Yi Pai: A Synthetic Theory against Representation are all grounded on this logic.[4]

ZHAN Wang's concept of "collapse," I assume, may have originated from when he discovered the value of flaws in the countless types of stones he had worked with. For example, Taihu stones are riddled with holes and pores, featuring a pockmarked texture and peculiar structure; their forms defy categorization by any rules. Unlike the neatly cut and smoothly polished marble, or the translucently clear jade, Taihu stones are full of imperfections, which in turn give them their character of collapse.

ZHAN Wang's belief that collapse gives rise to landscapes may have its roots in the Taihu stone. Mi Fu, renowned painter for his landscape paintings in the Song dynasty, is an admirer of cultural peculiarity. He once bowed in front of a Taihu stone, addressing it reverently as "Elder Brother Rock." From the perspective of physics and geology, landscapes are indeed the result of tectonic collapse. From a cultural and aesthetic standpoint, landscape painting is inseparable from the philosophy of seclusion and pastoral life, and seclusion is, in itself, a culture of collapse, representing an outlook on life of "imperfect perfection" shaped by complementing Confucian and Daoist values.

Golden Ratio 1:1.618, 2025, stainless steel, 64.72 x 40 x 24.72 cm

ZHAN Wang's Golden Ratio 1:1.618 (2025) is, in essence, a retreat into the realm of landscape, and I would describe it as a sculptural map in three dimensions. The golden ratio, also known as the divine proportion, is revered in visual arts as something of sacredness and perfection, which, however, is nowhere to be found in this piece. The sculpture appears collapsed, uneven, and distorted; much as we assume that ZHAN Wang shaped it using the golden ratio, that precise geometric form exists solely in our imagination. The golden rectangle is illusory, while this "strange stone" made of molded stainless steel becomes the reality. Here, the illusory and the real are switched, creating a misalignment between the name and the form.

This brings to my mind a concept I coined, "soft geometry." I used it to define what has been called "abstract art" in China since the 20th century. Whether it is the "abstract paintings" of landscape by artists like Zao Wou-Ki and Chu Teh-Chun, or the ones in "cosmic style" composed of squares and circles by Yu Youhan, I never saw them as abstraction of Western modernism. Instead, they are new landscape art influenced by the Chinese concept of mountains and waters, "maps" illustrating the atmospheric phenomena, or even, as the ancient people would say, "maps of the Nine Provinces." The cosmic movement and the fracturing of mountains determine that the so-called abstract forms depicted by these artists must be soft squares and circles, rather than hard-edged geometry, as "soft geometry" can accommodate both absence and protrusions. In my view, ZHAN Wang's Golden Ratio 1:1.618 is such a soft geometry.

II. Collapse and the "Being of Not-Being"

Tony Smith, Die (1962)

A Living Die, 2025, Stainless steel, 100 x 100 x 100 cm

ZHAN Wang's new work, A Living Die (2025), a stainless steel cube whose six faces are all cast from the same mold, is intended to engage in dialogue with Tony Smith's classic, Die. Die was created in 1962, the same year when ZHAN Wang was born, which might have been why ZHAN Wang named his work A Living Die. Generally regarded as a minimalist by art historians, Smith is often compared to Donald Judd, but they have very different artistic concepts from one another. Smith's ideas are arguably closer to early abstract expressionism, as he often contemplated and even questioned whether the ugly industrial forms would be able to express the timeless, sacred spirit of ancient times again. That is where his views diverge from those of the minimalists, such as Judd, who believed that cubes or rectangles are merely objects in themselves, and that they exist in parallel with the spirit without any connection with it. In Smith's mind, however, art and the ideal of perfection should be interconnected. Using the word "die" that means both "to become dead" and the object "dice," Smith was most likely alluding to the loss of ideals and perfection in an industrial world driven by mass production and capital values.

Inlay the Great Wall, 2001

ZHAN Wang uses metal "bricks" to repair the Great Wall, 2001

I wonder if there are similar thoughts behind this piece of ZHAN Wang's that engages in dialogue with Smith, yet such resonance is evident in his 2001 project, Inlay the Great Wall. In 2001, ZHAN Wang measured the bricks on the Great Wall, made over 250 bricks from 2mm thick stainless steel, polished and plated them with titanium gold. He said, "This kind of material is durable, magnificent, and inexpensive. Even if we didn't employ real gold, the effect would still be the same." Then, they were "laid" one by one onto the wall where parts and bricks had been missing. The glimmering golden bricks were inlaid on the Great Wall and look like big gold teeth. ZHAN Wang explained, "I combined these two symbolic elements (the old bricks and the inlaid golden 'bricks') together, and the issue I put forth is directed towards the dream of a whole nation." Over the past two thousand years, the Great Wall has transformed from a military defense structure and a symbol of patriotism to being at the forefront of economic globalization. It has truly been carrying diverse dreams of the Chinese people.

Although Collapsed Geometry continues the previous method of intermaterial entanglement, the focus has shifted from the objects being replicated to the relationships between objects in terms of form, quality, and quantity, as well as issues of real and fake implied by these relationships.

Two Bowls, 2025, Stainless steel, in 2 parts, Φ49 x 25 cm each, overall dimension 105 x 49 x 25 cm

In Two Bowls (2025), ZHAN Wang displays the result of breaking a sphere into two. Once separated, the two hemispheres are no longer equal, as the relationship between the particles that constitute the sphere has been disrupted. Now, the true relationship between the two hemispheres is merely one of similarity or resemblance, which is precisely an important method in creating art. Similarity and resemblance do not imply that two things are identical or equal. From a physical perspective, it can be argued that there are no two completely equal or identical things in the world. In terms of artistic creation, it is also impossible for the images and meanings of an artwork to be entirely equivalent to the reality outside of it. The "seeking sameness judgment" is a false problem in art.

As is written in I Ching (Book of Changes), "The writing cannot express a language in full and a language cannot convey man's thought in full ... The sage establishes images to convey meaning." This can be understood as shunning the "seeking sameness judgment" and "meaning extraction." "Establishing images" should not be simplistically interpreted as a binary substitution of "expressing concepts through images." While it does contain the meaning of an image, it simultaneously encompasses another layer of meaning, which is resemblance. Therefore, it is closer to an analogy, the comparison and analogy between two objects, an object and its context, and an object and its meaning. The ideal state of art should be to have "similarity without sameness," which I refer to as the artistic principle of "better to resemble than to be identical."

Let us return to Two Bowls.

i. When we say that the two "bowls" are the same ("sameness"), we are making a judgment that they are absolutely the same in "essence," "meaning," or "structure." The result is that one can replace the other; this is representation, where one bowl (art) represents another bowl. At first glance, this appears to be "true," seemingly aligning with the "seeking sameness judgment" of representation. However, as mentioned above, the two hemispheres are fundamentally different. Sameness is merely an illusion.

ii. In contrast, stating that the two bowls are "similar" avoids the judgment on the illusory "reality." Thus, "similarity" subverts the illusion of "sameness" through analogy (repeated experience). "Harmony between different things gives rise to everything, while blindly chasing after sameness hinders future development." (from Zheng Yu, Guo Yu, by Shibo, court historian of the West Zhou dynasty) This embodies the principle of "harmony in diversity"; only with differences can there be harmony and balance. If everything were the same, any development would be difficult.

iii. "Better to resemble than to be identical" does not seek to validate the essence of things, but rather to name them. "Similarity" is a way of giving something a "name." For example, "two bowls" is not the "reality," but the name given to the two hemispheres by ZHAN Wang. Artistic expression and poems, articles and language are merely ways of naming things, and the "name" of something does not entirely equate to itself. As repeatedly emphasized in the Diamond Sutra, that which is called Buddha and the Dharma is not Buddha or the Dharma; they are merely "called" as such. This is the Buddhist concept of "emptiness being the reality behind all things." Names and realities cannot be interchanged. Philosopher Zhang Dainian has said that the core of Chinese philosophy is "the formless root." My understanding of this statement is that the purpose of philosophy is fundamentally to seek truth; however, Chinese philosophy posits that truth has no fixed path or form, and is hidden within the everyday life, rather than suspended at a metaphysical height. Therefore, one who seeks to grasp the essence of truth must engage in daily embodied contemplation to gain the unspoken truth. This is why comparison and metaphor become crucial.

Consequently, ZHAN Wang's "two bowls" serves as an illusion that leaves us confounded, much like the painting Six Persimmons by Muqi, a monk in 13th-century China. With something that is not real (that is not a real bowl), ZHAN Wang expresses something that is real (the principle of the hemisphere). This perspective of the "being of non-being" can also be viewed as his personal artistic methodology of "sculpture that is not sculpture."

III. Innermaterial Enlightenment: Self-Development

The concept of freestanding sculpture has been abandoned by contemporary art. This is because contemporary artists believe that freestanding sculptures, whether depicting one figure or a group of figures, or even modern geometric forms, all adhere to a self-contained and singular logic of form. The revolution in sculpture by contemporary art has not arisen from within the sculpture itself, but rather through the direct replacement of sculpture with ready-made objects. As a result, installations and performance art have come into being. They convey meaning and connect with real life more directly than sculptures and can often bypass the burden of forms. The emergence of installation art has been shaped by structural linguistics. Installations can synthesize the different semantic layers brought by various ready-made objects into a new synchronic meaning. In short, from the perspective of structural linguistics, sculpture is a solo performance, while installation art is a symphony. The semantics of sculpture is singular, self-contained, and diachronic. In contrast, the semantics of installations is multiple, inter-referential, and synchronic; they serve as the context for each other, which is referred to as "contextualization." For instance, a cat cannot be defined as a cat unless something else is introduced as context, such as a mouse. "That which can catch mice is a cat." This is the structuralist logic and, by extension, the logic behind installation art. If we say "a cat is a cat," then that is sculpture. Contemporary art increasingly focuses on how discourses of social power come into effect, so the purpose of art must revolve around "meaning extraction." As a result, sculpture has almost been cast aside.

But is sculpture truly incapable of developing new directions from within? Apart from transforming from realism to geometric forms and from classical pedestals to the pedestal-free modern art, is there really no other way? More broadly, must the revolution of modeling art always rely on continuous division (abandonment) and replacement?

This is essentially a question concerning the essence of sculpture or the essence of art, and I feel that not many Chinese sculptors have pondered about it. But from the very beginning, ZHAN Wang has. He has always contemplated how can freestanding sculpture evolve from within.

Collapsed Geometry is his attempt to reconstruct the spatial structure of freestanding sculptures "from the inside out." The contrast between the solid exterior and hollow interior of the stainless steel stones provides him with the possibility for exploration. He opens them up, letting people see the inside of the "stones." The internal structure of the raw material is disrupted through techniques like drilling, hollowing, and interposing. The resulting forms give rise to various caves, passages, or even entirely independent spaces nested in the original form. One striking example is Sectioned Square (2025).

Open, 1995-2016, Stainless steel, 500 x 250 x 160 cm, Everyday Art and Urban Wonders 1994, CEIBS Beijing Campus

Sectioned Square, 2025, Stainless steel, 110 x 95 x 86.5 cm

Inner Square, 2025, Stainless steel, 187 x 107 x 100 cm

ZHAN Wang employs a variety of sectioning techniques—parallel circular cuts, intersecting cross-shaped circular cuts, and multi-directional circular cuts. Many of his sculptures also feature tunnels that look like they have been dug. However, he didn't dig them. The tunnels were formed when the cylinder-shaped void intersected with the natural cavities of the Taihu stone, making hollows out of both the cylinder and the holes. This created a spatial structure of "holes containing holes and emptiness meeting emptiness." One of his works is Let There Be A Tunnel (2025). Whether a tunnel appears and, if it does, where it is may be random and are determined by the structure of the Taihu stone. Here lies yet another paradox. Does this desire of "letting there be a tunnel" come from the Taihu stone or the artist himself? Therefore, the sectioning techniques can create unpredictable forms, which in turn can generate illusions or even a sense of crisis. This can be seen in Inner Square (2025). The tension between the voided sections and the original stone's texture can reflect different social semantics, such as the stark contrast between handmade and mechanical objects.

Let There Be A Tunnel, 2025, Stainless steel, 262 x 170 x 110 cm

Multi-directional Circle Section No.2, 2025, Stainless steel, 84 x 77 x 49 cm

Three-directional Circle Section, 2025, Stainless steel, 158 x 129 x 71 cm

One might wonder if ZHAN Wang's methods of sectioning, tunneling, and texture contrast are inspired by Taihu stones. After all, these elements can all be found in Taihu stones. Mountains, ravines, deserts, grasslands, and auspicious clouds, Taihu stones embody a fundamental unity and oneness. Chinese architecture exhibits this fundamental unity; the Forbidden City and the siheyuan (traditional courtyard houses in Beijing), despite their different scales and styles, share the same underlying principles. Chinese poetry, calligraphy, and painting have always been "different in name but same in nature," stemming from the same point of origin. Likewise, the murals of ancient Egypt and the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages have their own fundamental unity. Not only does it have a unique, self-sufficient, and complete structural principle, but the fundamental unity also constantly preserves the purity of the origin. Only in this way can countless variations be generated and, in turn, enrich and nourish the original essence. Viewed from this perspective, the geometric axioms seem to be assumed as a methodological principle in ZHAN Wang's new works, allowing for infinite variations of the circular and square sectionings and particle combinations.

Form of Particles No.3, 2022, Stainless steel, 86 x 48 x 67 cm

Beyond Infinity No.4-6, 2025, Stainless steel, 109 x 35 x 28.5 cm, 129 x 45 x 32 cm, 107 x 34 x 26.5 cm

I refer to the updated methodology in ZHAN Wang's Collapsed Geometry as "material awakening" or "innermaterial enlightenment."[5] There is a concept in Western modern art called "revelation," where modern artists sense some supernatural mystery that leads them to create modern geometric forms to accommodate it. Later minimalists deny the revelation; naturally, they do not believe that all things have spirits and think that geometry is merely the shape of things. ZHAN Wang drifts between modern revelation and the pure-material minimalism, which is what innermaterial enlightenment means. This idea encompasses not only the mutual inspiration between materials (such as stainless steel and stone) but also the meditative dialogue between the artist and these materials. Having worked with stone and stainless steel for three decades, he is intimately acquainted with their temperaments and character. His focus on the entanglement between these two substances has given rise to a variety of artworks. Now, he seeks to awaken the sculptural genius of them, forging a new path where "form can still be achieved even in the absence of rules or standards" (collapsed geometry).

References:

[1] ZHAN Wang, Solo Exhibition Proposal for "Collapsed Geometry", July 30, 2025.

[2] Maan Art interview, "ZHAN Wang: Limitations and Freedom", October 25, 2024.

[3] Artco China, "The Conceptual Sculpture of ZHAN Wang", May 2002, p110-116.

[4] Gao Minglu, Yi Pai: A Synthetic Theory against Representation, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2009.

[5] I coined both the Chinese and English terms. "Enlightening" means awakening and inspiration. They are similar to the "material wandering" concept of Yi Pai, a concept pertaining to the dialogue between things and man. I believe that Mono-ha (the School of Things) merely refers to dialogue between things, in other words, the relation between things. However, both early modernism and minimalism equate form with the material that stands in contrast to the spirit of the subject; their conception of material is passive and pure objects, or objecthood. See Gao Minglu, Yi Pai: A Synthetic Theory against Representation, "The View at Thing: Comparison with Minimalism and Mono-ha", Guangxi Normal University Press, 2009, p68-83.

The Chinese version link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/tR0Z_kBvQrvFCSVOkpMzEA