{"id":22483,"date":"2025-06-23T00:02:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T00:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/?p=22483"},"modified":"2025-06-23T00:09:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T00:09:42","slug":"jichi-zhang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/2025\/06\/23\/jichi-zhang\/","title":{"rendered":"Jichi Zhang"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"22483\" class=\"elementor elementor-22483\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6ec8749 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"6ec8749\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-75883f8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"75883f8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 22-05-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<h4>Jichi Zhang: The Poetics of Ephemerality<\/h4><p style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: bolder;\">by Anna Gvozdeva<\/span><\/i><\/p><div><i><span style=\"font-weight: bolder;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/div><p>Jichi Zhang&#8217;s practice transforms industrial detritus\u2014plastic sheeting, packaging materials, discarded ephemera\u2014into meditations on impermanence. His works exist in liminal states, where materials hover between form and decay, presence and absence. Rather than imposing rigid structures, Zhang collaborates with his mediums, allowing their inherent qualities\u2014wrinkles that soften, surfaces that shift\u2014to guide each piece&#8217;s evolution.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22488 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Backroom-leben-2024-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"749\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Backroom-leben-2024-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Backroom-leben-2024-1024x767.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Backroom-leben-2024-768x575.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Backroom-leben-2024-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Backroom-leben-2024.jpg 1113w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/> Jichi Zhang | Backroom, leben | 2024<\/p><p>The am series (2025) epitomizes this philosophy. Stripping the verb &#8220;to be&#8221; to its barest form, these installations embody suspended states of existence. Like plastic sheeting trembling in an unseen draft, they celebrate transience as a generative force. Similarly, Backroom, leben (2024) encases mechanical fish in plastic\u2014a poignant commentary on preservation and obsolescence that avoids didacticism through material poetry.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22486\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Pre-am-2025-300x223.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Pre-am-2025-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Pre-am-2025-768x571.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Pre-am-2025-600x446.jpg 600w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Pre-am-2025.jpg 840w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/> Jichi Zhang | Pre-am | 2025<\/p><p>Zhang&#8217;s site-responsive installations (Pre-am, Under-am) demonstrate remarkable spatial sensitivity. They don&#8217;t occupy space so much as converse with it\u2014activated by light, air currents, and viewer proximity. This creates an intimate viewing experience antithetical to today&#8217;s spectacle-driven art world.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22487 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Under-am-2025-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Under-am-2025-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Under-am-2025-600x444.jpg 600w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Under-am-2025.jpg 693w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/> Jichi Zhang | Under-am | 2025<\/p><p>Historical consciousness permeates works like Grounded (2024), where archival documents confront barbed wire. Yet Zhang&#8217;s approach remains resolutely material-first\u2014the politics emerge through textures and tensions rather than explicit statements.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22489 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Grounded-2024-300x243.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"809\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Grounded-2024-300x243.jpg 300w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Grounded-2024-1024x829.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Grounded-2024-768x622.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Grounded-2024-600x486.jpg 600w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Grounded-2024.jpg 1038w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/> Jichi Zhang | Grounded | 2024<\/p><p>Educated at Central Saint Martins and the Slade, with exhibitions from Saatchi to the Louvre, Zhang represents a vital countercurrent in contemporary art\u2014one that privileges fragility over monumentality, asking viewers to slow down and sit with uncertainty. His is an art of quiet persistence, where disappearance becomes its own form of staying.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jichi Zhang: The Poetics of Ephemerality by Anna Gvozdeva \u00a0 Jichi Zhang&#8217;s practice transforms industrial detritus\u2014plastic sheeting, packaging materials, discarded ephemera\u2014into meditations on impermanence. His works exist in liminal states, where materials hover between form and decay, presence and absence. Rather than imposing rigid structures, Zhang collaborates with his mediums, allowing their inherent qualities\u2014wrinkles that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22483"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22492,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483\/revisions\/22492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}