One of Zhang Huan's most powerful works,Family Tree was created two years after he left China to live and work abroad, leaving behind potential persecution as well as family and friends. Dealing with issues of cultural identity, familial relationships, and self-expression, this installation creates a moving image of the isolation felt with the loss of one's past. The artist had three Chinese calligraphers cover his face with poems, tales, and family names from his homeland, animating the traditionally silent portrait through language and performance.
As the series progresses (see the complete series), the calligraphy saturates his face; the linguistic mask takes on a suffocating presence. Staged solely for the camera, the event was documented over the course of a day, the passage of time captured with the increasing layers of ink and the changing light.
Born in 1965, Zhang Huan studied painting as a graduate student at Beijing's Central Fine Arts Academy. After graduation in 1993, he helped found the artist's enclave Beijing East Village. Zhang Huan subsequently became one of the most recognized Chinese artists engaged in a variety of media: performance, photography, sculpture, painting, and stage production. In 1998 Zhang Huan moved to the United States. His international reputation established, he returned to China in 2006 and opened Zhang Huan Studio in Shanghai. He now divides his time between New York and Shanghai.
