Hu Zi hides her own eyes behind her hair. This concealment is nonetheless revealing. The viewer is left to put together the puzzle of her personality through the minimalistic lines...
Hu Zi hides her own eyes behind her hair. This concealment is nonetheless revealing. The viewer is left to put together the puzzle of her personality through the minimalistic lines of her profiled ear, nose, mouth and hand. The works in the triptych are like film frames that zoom out from a close-up to full body shot in which we see her hand holding a marijuana joint. The blackness of the background, hair and shirt reinforce the dark side, while the sun-orange leather coat, her hands and facial features offer a glimpse of the lighter side of her personality. Seemingly shy, Hu Zi sits back in the shadows and hides behind the curtain of her straight black hair, which she can open and close at will, observing through her private window.
Hu Zi leaves plenty in her self-portrait for future artists to “correct”, as well as in her rectified portraits of historical icons from the 16th and 17th centuries. “You pour lives into the portraits, and they will live their own,” she wrote for her 2018 exhibition catalogue, Stone Flesh.
Hu Zi hides her own eyes behind her hair. This concealment is nonetheless revealing. The viewer is left to put together the puzzle of her personality through the minimalistic lines of her profiled ear, nose, mouth and hand. The works in the triptych are like film frames that zoom out from a close-up to full body shot in which we see her hand holding a marijuana joint. The blackness of the background, hair and shirt reinforce the dark side, while the sun-orange leather coat, her hands and facial features offer a glimpse of the lighter side of her personality. Seemingly shy, Hu Zi sits back in the shadows and hides behind the curtain of her straight black hair, which she can open and close at will, observing through her private window.
Hu Zi leaves plenty in her self-portrait for future artists to “correct”, as well as in her rectified portraits of historical icons from the 16th and 17th centuries. “You pour lives into the portraits, and they will live their own,” she wrote for her 2018 exhibition catalogue, Stone Flesh.