Fingerprints of Zhang Yu are used as an accredited form of personal identification. In his art, there is the double or more roles of a visibility and invisibility beyond painterly expressions. Zhang’s work is not just a painting, but an artistic keyword of the postmodernism including mixture of genres and combination of genres. We’ve interviewed Zhang when he was in preparation for his new exhibition titled “Self-Cultivation.”

　　Zhang Yu started off as a traditional ink painter of China, but pioneers the challenges of ‘experimental ink paintings’ while respecting and succeeding the tradition. Today, he has grown to be an all-round artist who absorbs the latest artistic styles of the contemporary time. He is more spotlighted by the critics than any other contemporary artists of China in terms of the modern success and variation of traditional ink paintings and the modern extension of its boundaries. Zhang has boldly removed the berth (and even the ink, from time to time) amongst the there requirement of traditional Asian paintings: paper, brush, and ink. His work can be classified into the following in terms of style. I look for the top of criticism within his artistic style.

　　First, Zhang makes tens of thousands of black or red dots with his fingers on a large-sized piece of paper. His fingers are the tools for making the ink dots and the source of his contents with the fingerprints that symbolize has identity and uniqueness. He prints his fingerprints one by one, and they gather to create a monochromatic abstract painting. The compositions are all-over paintings where there is no separation between the center and the surroundings or the main character and the extras. From which artistic point of view should we interpret and evaluate the act of imprinting one’s fingerprints and the outcomes of such act?

　　Second, Zhang still draws with his fingers, but uses water instead of ink. Bringing the fingers dipped in water onto the canvas requires highly trained concentration and techniques. As the moment when the fingerprints meet the paper through water, the energy (living body or spirit) of the fingerprints enters the paper (material) and the tension of contraction and release occurs on the surface of paper when the fingerprints are quickly pressed or contacted. Therefore, the thin skin of the paper is slightly pushed or attached to the fingerprints because of moisture. The dips and swells on the surface of paper create the figurative effects of bas-relief. Also, these finger movements continue to create paper objects without color, or, more accurately, perfectly achromatic. Wouldn’t this be the true space of falsity or nothingness? Can Zhang’s work be included in the boundary of ink painting? Or is it a type of minimal objects?

　　Third, Zhang actively develops 2D work into 3D and installation art. If Zhang had settled with paintings trapped in rectangular frames, he would have been known as an ordinary ’painter.’ (Looking back, experimental ink paintings have already marked some pages in art history in case of Korea and Japan along with the boom of Avant-garde calligraphy and the introduction of western abstract expressionism in the late 1940s and in the 1950s.) Zhang’s work is painting, but extends far beyond the boundaries of painting. His work embraces every artistic keyword of the post-modernist era, including mixture of genres and integration (or combination) of genres. If so, where is Zhang’s work positioned in between tradition and modernity?

　　Fourth, Zhang’s work can be expanded to a type of performance using the body. The repetitive act of printing countless fingerprints itself is a form of art inseparable from time. Therefore, Zhang’s work is widely open to the possibility of documentary archives, such as photography or video art. There is another astonishing fact. Zhang recently created an innovative methodology to enrich his artistic notion along with the physical act of recording by pointing on clear planes, such as glass, instead of paper. It is his new performance of printing fingerprints in red on clear glass boards. This work overlaps his body (face) and red fingerprints to create a very interesting process of creation and a unique meaning. As the act of printing fingerprints, which is his act of painting, continues, his face on the other side of the glass is concealed (erased). The act of painting erases (hides) the shape of face. The act of erasing the face inside the glass eventually remains as a piece of painting. It expresses the wondrous logic of Yin and Yang or an acerbic logic of irony. This work meets with the landscape beyond the glass board as a unique style of art. It is the methodology of ‘borrowing from the landscape.’ How far does Zhang’s extended form of art stretch?

　　As many of us know, the contemporary art of China has quickly grown since the mid1990s, representing Asian art in various international biennales. In the new century, Chinese art has become the leader of Asia, pioneering the world’s art market. However, most artists leading China’s contemporary art have been oil painters and sculptors following the western styles. Most Chinese artists took pro-western (sometimes as western followers) styles in political pop art, cynical realism, gaudy art, performance, photography, video, etc. As the opening and reformation of Chinese politics and economy could not evade westernization, the globalization of Chinese art would not skip the journey through the western style.

　　This is exactly why I value the existence of ink painters like Zhang Yu. Zhang’s work always faces the massive controversial artistic discourses, such as tradition/ modernity, Asia/ West, region/ world, unique/ universal, etc. These topics of debates are very important. This is what underlies the identity and originality of Zhang’s work and the concerns of Chinese art or Asian art.

　　art Your work can be narrowed down to three colors: Black, White, and Red. What is the reason why you limit the use of color? What do these three colors symbolize?

　　ZHANG Black is obviously from traditional ink painting, the root of my work. Red is from the social network, such as agreements and promises. It is a kind of ‘artificial color.’ White is applied to creating embossed surfaces by dipping my fingers in water to make imprints on paper. This kind of work creates various delicate visual effects according to the change of light and the flow of time. I started this work in 2007 and the most critical part is that I use water, the most natural material. I believe that the supreme of art is nature. I express art through natural methods and natural acts.

　　art Why did you discard brush?

　　ZHANG I wanted to break my link to painting. My work has converted from 2D painting to 3D relief since I began using my hands to print my fingerprints.

　　art Your paintings are liberally expanding into installation art beyond painting on rectangular canvas. The installation of rolls is particularly increasing. You lay rolls on the floor or hang them on the wall or ceiling to drape them. They are lying on the floor, standing in the space, or reaching to the sky. Looking back, however, there are other contemporary artists in China who created installations with rolls, like Xu Bing, for example. He was spotlighted with his work, A Book from The Sky/ Tianshu天書. Of course your work is slightly different from his, in terms of style. Is the style of your installations originated from Chinese tradition? What does it imply?

　　ZHANG Xu Bing’s A Book from The Sky/ Tianshu天書 was intended to create fake characters(為體) that do not exist in reality. These characters are hung on the ceiling for the viewers to lift their heads to look at it and understand its meaning. I display the prints of my fingerprints created by dipping my fingerprints in water from bottom up or from the ceiling to the floor. By doing so, I made it possible to see both the front and back of the paper. You can see the effect of light that varies according to angle. My work shows the natural perspective that heaven, earth, and people are interrelated. It brings in the ideology of ‘Oneness of Heaven and Earth’ in Chinese traditional thinking. The way how I exhibit my work is related to Chinese tradition. I believe that Xu Bing was inspired by the sheers around the bed. I was also inspired by windows, but I took it to the other level. I took it off the wall, into the space.

　　art There are a number of artists in Korea who discard color and brush from the traditional elements of paper, brush, and ink to work with paper only. They are adopting 3D. In this case, they are turning their back on tradition. What are the elements of tradition the remains with your work, if any?

　　ZHANG My work is different from scratching or punching paper using tools. In case of my fingerprint work, I do not intend to create 3D effect. I do not rely on external tools, but I accept the relationships created by the act of my physical body and water to see the results. The water I use in my work is from certain places. Among them, Lushan, or Mount Lu (魯山) in Shandong is related to Taoism and Longjing of Huangzhou represents Taoism.

　　art If so, is there a difference between water from Lushan and water from Longjing?

　　ZHANG Water from each region has different characteristics (pH). There is a delicate difference in the speed and shape of how they smear in paper. However, this is not that important. When it comes to appreciating artwork, there are visible things and invisible things.

　　art In terms of style, your work can be classified into all-over painting among the abstract art of the West.

　　ZHANG From Kandinsky and Mondrian to Jackson Pollack, we can see the flow from geometric abstract to expressionist abstract. My work could be described as abstract art in visual perspective, but essentially, it is not related to abstract.

　　art Your world of art is known as ’discipline.’ The 1st-generation modernist artists of Korea, such as Park, Seo Bo, describe their work as ‘the process of emptying myself.’ Also Kim, Tschang Yeul painted only water drops for a long time, and he said that it is his way toward self-purification, similar to how the monks gong their wooden instrument.

　　ZHANG My artistic creation is ‘Self-Cultivation (修行)’ and my artworks are the trails or outcomes of my training. This is the term that represents my world of art overall and it includes both time and process. People in the Asian culture have the cultural background of self-cultivation, but people in the West describe my work as abstract painting based on painterly views. However, I removed all painterly elements when I discarded the brush.

　　art Do you discipline yourself to do art?

　　ZHANG I do when I perform Tai-chi. This process creates the relief on the surface. My work surpasses abstract art. Simply put, the process and result of my creation are ‘self-cultivation.’

　　art Fingerprints represent the biological DNA and physical identity of each individual. In Asia, fingerprints are an important proof of identification, more so than signatures in the West. Your paintings prove that you are unique. At the same time, the fingerprints that are repeated to fill the entire surface are broadened into a certain sociological message. What is interesting is that the group of fingerprints on the surface is conceptual and abstract at the same time. It is non-conceptual as a whole, but each fingerprint is conceptual. It is an abstract whole created by conceptual entities. The boundary between conceptual and non-conceptual is vague. The act of printing with your fingers can be described as ‘physical printing.’

　　ZHANG Yes. Printing your fingerprints could be the primitive form of printing….The red series implies the social notion of agreements and promises. Many construction and development processes have began in the rapid development of China and agreements have become an essential element. There is a flood of agreements and promises, but I question how many of them are actually being kept. I also delivered a social message through Diffused Fingerprint.

　　art In the end, your work seems to encase both tradition/ modernity and East/ West. What kinds of issues have you pondered regarding tradition and modernity and what are your signifiers?

　　ZHANG Since1985, I have worked on experimental art by accepting western elements, while constantly contemplating how to transcend tradition. I used to do conceptual work until1993, but it has been non-conceptual work since then. The Fingerprint series was born in 1991. At first, I still had some influence of painting because I had just stopped using the brush. The things changed over time as I began to emphasize repetition, self-cultivation, and imprints. The Fingerprint series has more contemporary tendencies.

　　art Your past work displays light that are directly depicted on the screen, but your latest work has different interpretation of light. In terms of the relationship between artwork and light, you are bringing in more transparent materials than paper, such as film, glass, and fabric. Since you are adopting various kinds of media, it would be nice to stress the contemporary aspect more.

　　ZHANG I have created prints on silk, book-shaped work, 3D work, and fingerprints on film or glass windows. The piece of fingerprints on the 18-floor windows displays the actual landscape beyond the windows. I am constantly expanding my expression styles. I show footages and photographs of how I created my pieces during my exhibition as well.

　　Now, I would like to answer the critical question about Zhang Yu’s works, which I raised for myself in the beginning.

　　First, his works are the paintings ‘drawn by the body.’ The body is neither an antitheses of the mind nor a material substructure of the mind, but an arena for fierce exchanges of ‘a discourse about subjectivity.‘ In Zhang’s work, fingerprint is an important keyword. ‘Hand art (指頭畫, Zhitouhua)’ created by hands instead of brushes was first attempted by Artist Zhang Zao(張操) who was active in the Tang Dynasty in the late 8th Century. It is a western material, but pastel drawings are also hand art. ‘Hand art’ may be characterized by the direct (or physical) production; the burning flame of creation flows relentlessly like the high-tension current from painter’s heart and brain to the canvas without any intervention of brush or other tools. In a nutshell, ’Hand art’ expresses ‘a sense of happiness mixing material and body.’ However, Zhang’s work is a new style of art as he does not simply draw hands with hands, but he prints his fingerprints. His Fingerprint series surpass painterly expressions. Fingerprints are unique to each person as an innate form of identity. Fingerprints can never be duplicated. Therefore, fingerprints are used as an accredited form of personal identification.

　　Zhang’s Fingerprint series is unique to him.

　　Second, Zhang Yu’s works are ‘ink works and at the same time, objects.’ The Fingerprint series is not just leaving prints (shapes) on paper. It is interesting because it records creative acts. It is abstract as a whole, but each entity of that whole is a symbol pressed by his fingers on the surface of paper. Then, is such a sign off the category of the Asian ink painting? Yes, in terms of forms at least. In terms of contents, however, we may that his sign inherits the spirit of the ink paintings produced by the brush stroke. Fingerprinting is not a simple repetition of acts. It requires the power of mental concentration for the vitality of energy beyond the level demanded by the ink painting brush technique. Basically, Zhang’s works are ink paintings. What is important is the fact that he is developing his ink painting to the dimension beyond the authentic ink painting. I would like to call it ‘a formative variation’ like chameleon. In deed, the formative variation in the Asian ink painting is neither newest nor surprising. The Asians are too familiar with the transformations from the two-dimensional ink paintings to some objects like scroll or book. Contrastingly in the context of the Western fine art, Zhang’s works may be interpreted consequently as ‘object paintings.’ (In fact, he once produced some three-dimensional works.)

　　Third, Zhang’s works are paintings and at the same time sort of performance. When it came to evolve into the body art using artist’s body as a tool in 1960s, the performance art had been established as genre of fine art. We remember the works of such artists as Yves Klein who drew with not brush but body. In the western history of fine art, the body implies an exit to the liberation from the spirit-centered noble art. However, Zhang’s works emphasize, unlike the Western performance, the spirituality. He has long put forward the theme ‘self-cultivation.’ Self-cultivation is a spiritual catharsism using the meditation. Anyway, there is another reason why I attach some meaning to Zhang’s works as potential performance. Above all, performance is a three-dimensional act. This act is very closely related with such recording acts as photography, video and other moving image media. Namely, I would like to emphasize that the possibility of Zhang’s works as a high-end genre of art is unlimited in this age of new media. His works are open toward the future.

　　Fourth, Zhang is not biased toward any direction: tradition/ modernity, East/ West, localism/ globalism. Probably, he is seeking a new dialectic solution crossing the borders freely. His working technique is very monotone and ‘closed,’ but very ‘open’ in terms of the method of presentation. The concept of his works is very clearly ‘closed,’ but their formative extension is widely ‘open.’ Their Virtue lies not in ‘perfection’ but in ‘progression.’ Here is artist’s virtue, too.

作者：Bog-gi,Kim