Vivien Zhang b. 1990
Cultivar Bearer (Woven Portals), 2020
Oil and spray paint on canvas
150 x 250 cm
59 1/8 x 98 3/8 in
59 1/8 x 98 3/8 in
Copyright The Artist
In the large-scale painting 'Cultivar Bearer (Woven Portals)', 2020 Zhang introduces images of the rose-apple that haphazardly bounce across the canvas. Native to South-East Asia, the fruit draws upon the...
In the large-scale painting "Cultivar Bearer (Woven Portals)", 2020 Zhang introduces images of the rose-apple that haphazardly bounce across the canvas. Native to South-East Asia, the fruit draws upon the artist’s personal memories of her time in Thailand and China. Painted against a backdrop of horizontal colours that are pixelated, the painting’s composition is a reminder of our digital world, appearing almost like a screenshot of a video game. Adding to the dynamic effect are a series of loops that recur in the kilim patterns and that also references the arch, a revered shape in architecture that dates back to 2000 BC but was perfected as an architectural structure by the Romans. The painting’s choice of images reflects the way in which our own memories work (bouncing from one recollection to another often by chance) as well as how images appear across our screens in ostensibly random ways.