Pieces of My Mind, Night / Nebula Series
Watercolor Paper, Craft Paper
Size Varies
2025
Built on the ideology of "Pieces of My Mind, Pale" series, the new series digs deep into inner dark/colorful thoughts and connections between the ideas, connections built unconsciously, and the inevitable mutation of the thoughts as time goes by. Childhood's little "lanterns" constraints and protect the fragments of thoughts throughout years of personal experiences, and eventually burst into a nebula. Every sharp and pointy piece one cut off from their own personality for the sake of blending into social norms eventually came back, attached to themselves, dragged along and became the weapon and tentacle to reach new edges.
Pieces of My Mind, Pale
Watercolor Paper, Craft Paper
Size Varies
2024
Combining traditional Chinese paper cutting technique with the Western contemporary art aesthetic, using scissors to “draw” lines, Zhang investigates what we choose to perceive and thus remember, and what we allow to be unseen and forgotten. In a time when cultural narratives are often rewritten or erased, these sculptures stand as tactile symbols to hidden stories and silenced voices.
Visually innovative and enjoyable, the loose works can be freely reorganized, offering endless possibilities. Though in futuristic sculptural forms, each piece carries a backstory rooted in Zhang’s lived experience and heritage, responding to personal childhood memories of paper lantern making, as well as broader issues such as migration, displacement, and identity. The surreal versions of “lantern” looking structures is both the cage and shelter of the stories and thoughts. The crowded installation view reminds viewers where individuals belong or choose to engage with.
Migration
Watercolor Paper, Craft Paper
Size Varies
2025
As part of a fluid, large-scale installation, each paper sculpture features a light, self-sustaining structure that can withstand pressure and falls, while simultaneously extending outward with fragile spikes that embody the contradictions that emerge from within the self. Each cut-off piece becomes an independent figure, then magically returns to its original place, being reattached to oneself.
Presenting a kind of loneliness in a crowded place allows the paper sculpture to create a certain mood or emotion in a simple way. Viewers often read these individual paper sculptures as surreal “creatures” that migrate together, forming an uncertain path. The installation as a collective system portrayed a tendency of unrelated animals and plants to evolve superficially similar characteristics under similar environmental conditions.
