Artist Zhang Huan, Ash Square 6, edition 1 of 1. The artist Zhang Huan creates his “Ash Square” to pay his hommage and dialogue with Kazimir Malvich's "Black Painting", which is on the collection of the State Heritage Musuem. "Ash Square" is carried out in 2021 by Zhang’s use of the presentation of video, animation, and medium of NFT. "Ash Square" series is among the artist's first attempt of creating NFT art.
In the work, viewers see ashes to construct and deconstruct a gray composition in a timeline. Then, this ongoing movement projects a narrow space in a non-perspective sense.
The materials of ash which are collected from censers in various temples in China symbolize happaniess and blessing for the artist. He sees the characteristics of materials as being immaterial and uses them in different formats in his art such as painting, sculpture, and so on.
By using ash in this kind of time and space, generated by video and animation, the artist represents the sensory memory of the collective worship and thus portraits an ideology of ideal life. In this context, the artist presents an interface to link to the conception of black space created within “Black Painting” and to dialogue with the space/time with that of the painting.
