Zhang Huan - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, November 15, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Private collection, Europe

  • Literature


    M. Chiu, Altered Art: Zhang Huan, in Altered States, NewYork and Milan, 2007,
    pp. 22-24; E. Heartney, Zhang Huan: Becoming the Body, in Altered States, NewYork and
    Milan, 2007, p. 47

  • Catalogue Essay


    On [Zhang Huan’s] visit to Tibet [in 2005] he collected a number of fragments
    of small Buddhist sculptures, especially in bronze and copper; fingers torn
    off; crushed hands, feet, and legs. These have inspired him to create a new
    series of works rendered in copper on a gigantic scale. He began with
    Buddha’s fingers. There is a phrase in Chinese, puo zhi, which translates as
    broken finger, but it bears a similar sound to broken son. This brings an
    understanding of the misfortune or a recognition, especially for Chinese
    collectors, that a Buddhist statue without fingers is incomplete and perhaps
    even bad luck. On another level, the fingers of Buddha also provide
    worshippers with symbolism, because the position of fingers into various
    mudras conveys different meanings. Zhang Huan fashioned Buddha fingers
    from sheets of copper, and at the place where they should have been attached
    to the hand he has created a small mesh cage, transforming the fingers into
    cages for birds and tortoises. Others are filled with rolled cloth scriptures.
    Here the artist considers the twelve fingers in the series as receptacles for the
    written word and the living.
    M. Chiu, “Altered Art: Zhang Huan,” Altered States, NewYork and Milan,
    2007, pp. 22-23

76

Buddha Finger #5

2006

Copper and Tibetan scriptures on canvas.

27 x 117 x 24 in. (68.6 x 297.2 x 61 cm).

Estimate
$120,000 - 180,000 

Sold for $145,000

Contemporary Art Part I

15 Nov 2007, 7pm
New York