Using graphite pencils on felt, ZHANG Yunyao has developed a distinctive visual language. The artist minimizes brushstrokes and uses very little color to create an “anti-painting” approach which results in an extreme form of visual imagery. The stretched white felt is a malleable canvas, and the pencil marks appear nearly devoid of tangible material quality. Yet, astonishingly, images cling to the soft, undulating fibers, as if floating to the surface. In other painting techniques, pigments form their own surfaces through texture and thickness, merging with the canvas as the image’s physical form. However, ZHANG’s drawings present the image itself. Although forms are achieved through negative space, the entire surface has been touched by graphite, and it is all part of the image. Within the impeccable unity of space, even the untouched areas do not reveal their native texture. The artist’s approach is thoroughly rational and composed. Through this intense, unforgiving, and rigorous process, ZHANG uses an extreme range of black and white tones to eliminate most traditional painting techniques. Instead, the artist focuses on the psychological landscapes that originate from within, eschewing objects and experiences drawn from daily life. His subjects are often European sculptures portraying the human body in extremis. At times, ZHANG employs montage layering and random smudges to create a sense of multidimensional structure and spatiotemporal richness. To the artist, Ancient Greek and Baroque sculptures represent an art of fear and hope—opposing emotions manifesting as dual aspects of the same subject. The two are interdependent, hope does not exist without fear, and vice versa. In depicting these extant three-dimensional works, the artist constructs a transcendent psychological space which contrasts with the palpable atmosphere and depth of his images. Gleaming in black and white tones, bronze and marble forms seem to struggle within timelessness. Untouched by reality, they appear more real than what the eye can see.
After living in Paris for nearly half a decade, the artist’s focus shifted. ZHANG’s early art education began in drawing animals, and in Paris, the artist found his interest in animals and nature rekindled. Experimenting with stretched white felt and colored pencils, ZHANG began to introduce animals, and in particular, primates, into his work. In particular, he mentions the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris, along with exhibitions of prints, illustrations, posters, and other works on paper. In pre-modern times, hunting was an aristocratic pastime where one killed animals in displays of courage and might. With technological advancements, the nobility were able to document their exploits in great detail. During that time period, academic disciplines were not classified as they are now. Today’s biology, geology, and ethnography were all part of “natural history,” as opposed to “natural philosophy” which encompassed physics and chemistry. As scholars embarked across the world, they returned to Europe with discoveries from the New World, and these collections of curiosities eventually evolved into the modern museum. Natural historians, then known as naturalists, sketched, painted, engraved, and taxidermied their findings—doing the work themselves or commissioning others to do it for them. Many of these image makers did not have artistic training and instead relied on instinct and experience, using their grasp of various mediums to convey the form and detail of their subjects. Their primary goal was to capture the specimen’s objective state, isolating its characteristics from the environment, and rendering it into a passive object. Non-artistic in nature, these images captured ZHANG’s imagination, and provided a fresh perspective on painting.
When sketching botanical and zoological specimens, scientists developed parallel projection techniques to capture an object in two dimensions; these techniques are also used in architectural, engineering, and mechanical drafting. Much like the way in which early humans made imprints of their bodies or created pressings of plant specimens, this image-making method consistently regards the object as an independent entity, transcending time. The object possesses fixed, immutable dimensions, shapes, and colors, which renders them available for observation, measurement, and even replication to some extent. Parallel projection became a key drafting technique and was widely applied to illustrations, manuals, emblems, advertisements, and design, and dominated a large swath of artificial image making during the pre-modern era. In Eastern traditional art, one also sees axonometric projection in the depiction of objects in space. This is a type of parallel projection that simultaneously depicts an object’s front, side, and top views, and is often seen in architectural renderings. Thus, Eastern painting tradition and pre-modern drafting techniques share a fundamental origin: observation and examination are multidimensional and fluid, focusing on the object itself, whereas the representation of said object emphasizes outcome and the effectiveness of practical application on multiple levels.
In contrast, single point perspective came to represent another facet of image making, which focused more on the optical method of image creation and its conveyed meaning. It was already present in ancient Greek and Roman painting, and the concept of “objects that are nearer are larger, while objects that are farther appear smaller” is also found in art from many other civilizations. However, it was Italian Renaissance artists who systematically developed and applied principles of single-point perspective, with Leon Battista Alberti and Piero della Francesca offering some of the most comprehensive explanations.
The idea of “objects that are nearer are larger, while objects that are farther appear smaller” was defined through mathematical and geometrical principles, from there, rules and guidelines followed. Unlike parallel projection, which only depicts the relationship between the object and the image plane, single point perspective introduces an observer who stands outside the image. The artist is the observer, and as a subjective entity, chooses a single, static viewpoint at a specific moment, and makes the near and far perspective absolute under set conditions. Conceptually speaking, single point perspective reveals the space-time relationship between the observer and the external world by capturing a single moment in the progression of time, serving as a tangible record of “here and now.” Thus, the observer interacts with the object within the context of space and time set within the entirety of the past and future, and captures this interaction through the principles of single point static image making. The aim is to preserve the interaction from time’s passage and shifts in space, enabling any individual who later encounters the image to inherit the observer’s perspective. From the creator’s perspective, once the interaction becomes an image, it begins to move into the future. From the viewer’s perspective, their interaction with the image takes them back in time, to become that same observer. The resulting image is imbued with a culturally significant “mystical moment” which comes to pass as these interactions align with the linear sequence of time. In a way, painters from the Renaissance until Impressionism were embedding personal expressions of “mystical moments” within the space-time of history.
We believe that all things, including ourselves, have a beginning and an end. And so, linear time is inevitable. Single point perspective seems to construct a perfect world that mirrors the ideal universe described by Newton’s laws of motion. The significance of single point perspective also brought realism to the forefront of visual art, and through its connection to the principles of optics, led to the invention of photography. However, modern physics has reshaped our understanding of the universe, and cognitive science has revealed that the idea of “perfect representation” is ultimately misguided. Visual information is processed subconsciously in the brain, and we construct what we think is an “objective” world. However, this perception is in fact far from objective or complete, our perception has adapted over time to meet the demands of evolutionary survival. In our contemporary understanding, we humans are not the world’s masters and our history as a species on this planet is brief. Animals are a more stable reference, and become humanity’s metaphors. This is ZHANG’s departure point and why he uses systematic drafting techniques to replace and update the perfect space formed by single point perspective. The “mystical moment” extends forwards and backwards, reaching into the depths of time, space, and consciousness. Through allegories of primates and other animals, ZHANG expands upon his artistic expression, and explores the origins of emotion with a liberated approach to painting.
Color plays a vital role in scientific illustration, and it inspired ZHANG to experiment with using colored pencils to draw on felt. Like graphite pencils, colored pencils allow for detailed work. Yet, their qualities of lighter adhesion and penetration align with the needs of scientific illustration. Unlike his previous works, ZHANG’s primate drawings feature large areas of pale objects and backgrounds. But no matter how light, the artist has meticulously covered the canvas with colored dots and lines, putting extraordinary effort into each detail. Although colored pencils come in a wide range of colors, not all of them are suitable for using on felt. Artists who are accustomed to mixing pigments will find it necessary to utilize techniques similar in principle to pointillism. ZHANG has employed methods such as juxtaposition, contrast, and interweaving to achieve rich, yet subtle color effects. In his drawings, the combination of colored pencils and felt enables an extraordinary rendering of the fine textures of plants and primate fur. This approach is comparable to the composition and execution of traditional European tapestries from which ZHANG has also drawn inspiration.
Though color selection is inherently subjective, when it came to choose colors for his drawings, ZHANG intentionally heightened and emphasized subjectivity. Scientific drawings attempt to reproduce the actual color of objects, but ZHANG’s use of color instead prioritizes psychological effect, and diverges from the object’s natural hues. His technique resembles a negative image, where he weaves objects into specific environments via color relationships. In addition to his felt paintings, the artist also created works through photographic techniques when he was in Paris. Using his phone to snap photos of animals, he later processed the images and presented the negatives as art. The animals in these images are at times unidentifiable because the inversion of positive and negative imagery results in surreal colors, creating a sense of conflict and distortion that challenges conventional perception. ZHANG is not seeking to be effective via the logic of photography. Instead, he takes a creator’s perspective, and explores his observation of the world and selects colors that “speak.” This complementary color effect, which is akin to negative imagery, has also been introduced into some of ZHANG’s felt paintings. Along with the artist’s construction of the scene, his transformation of the relationship between objects, and the altered states of the objects themselves, ZHANG has created a “Palace of Alienation” in an evolutionary sense.
In his “Palace of Alienation,” the word “alienation” refers to a generalized state of existence and awareness, which is related to the loss of subjectivity and the lack of awareness of such. The evolution of life, which includes humans, is far from peaceful; it is a mere manifestation of life’s blind resistance to that mysterious cosmic force—entropy. ZHANG’s primates exude calm and grace, yet the subjective treatment of their form and his unconventional use of color creates an atmosphere of unease and impending doom. Herein lies the paradox. On one hand, life is a divine directive, the culmination of logic. On the other hand, all living beings are merely evolution’s survivors. In this second act of the “Palace of Alienation” series, ZHANG continues using the familiar medium of graphite pencil on felt, transforming objects and scenes borrowed from specific moments in time into inexplicable souvenirs, suspended somewhere in the subconscious. And so, ZHANG commemorates the centennial of Surrealism.
One of the works titled “Palace of Alienation” was inspired by sketches the artist made during lockdown in 2020, when he was confined to his room in Paris. The piece depicts a wooden owl sculpture, overlaid with eyes borrowed from a Greek bronze. The work is infused with the dread and hope that was experienced by so many around the world during that time and also carries the “mystical moment” through the act of observation and representation. It signals the artist’s subsequent reflection on the significance of life and the act of painting. Along with this piece, ZHANG has also titled several other works metaphorically and ironically. Their titles form a dialogue with their psychological landscapes. Within this intimate and paradoxical psychological turmoil, the works coalesce as evidence of emotion, which symbolize the circumstances of the artist and his peers.
ZHANG Li, born in 1970 in Jilin, is a contemporary art curator and writer who currently resides in Shanghai.
