Zhang Dali: Square

Klein Sun Gallery is pleased to present Square, a solo exhibition of new sculptures, cyanotypes, and paintings by Zhang Dali on view from June 26 through August 30, 2014. 

The name of the exhibition, "Square," is a reference to Tiananmen Square. It highlights the energy, significance, and power of a place that Zhang Dali refers to as “holy” and "brimming with bright light." Widely known throughout The People’s Republic, the Square stands as one of the most significant landmarks in the country. In this exhibition, Zhang Dali's abstraction of Tiananmen acts as a capturing of the holiness he finds there.

The sculptures in the series are pristine white fiberglass casts of migrant Chinese workers in their everyday clothing. Attached, above and amongst these free-standing casts, are flying and resting doves also cast in white fiberglass. The scene that the sculptures craft could be plucked directly out of Tiananmen Square, with one major exception—doves are nowhere to be found in this city center. These scenes are imagined and Zhang Dali can only dream of seeing doves in Tiananmen. The free-flying birds represent the artist’s resolve to reconstruct what Tiananmen symbolizes—wishing it was a place where thoughts, desires for the future, and an individual’s resolve are free to soar. 

Square - Sketch is a group of paintings that were initially created solely as an outline for Zhang Dali to explore his desire to create the aforementioned body of sculptures. At the top of a sky-blue background, there are images of doves and disconnected human heads which reveal a blunt expression of the pain and simultaneous hope that underpin Zhang Dali's thoughts of Tiananmen Square. The complex and unexpected relationship shared between these ideas—decapitated heads, jovial movements of bodies, sky blue backgrounds, and doves—elevates these paintings past their initial existence as sketches and towards the refined form of expression found throughout Zhang Dali’s work.