Infinity and Bookpage

By Zhang Linmiao

This exhibition showcases Zhang Xiaodong’s works and covers more than 15 years of the artist's career. From his first work inspired by dragon scale binding until his latest “Infinite Leaves” series, the exhibition presents a comprehensive view of the artist’s universe.

“Book Leaves” gave the inspiration and start to Zhang Xiaodong’s art, creating infinite possibilities in a contemporary context. He has been fond of books since he was a child, and the elegant arrangements of pages have been of great consolation and cure to him since then. No matter how times change, even with the emergence of electronic books and the decline of paper books in our time, books have always been unique to Zhang Xiaodong, being both a space where human civilization inhabits and a spaceship capable of crossing time.

There is a thousand-year history of bookbinding art in China, but many traditional techniques are being neglected today. About 15 years ago, Zhang Xiaodong began to focus on the research of bookbinding, learning from Lu Jingren, the Chinese great master in book design. After years of dedicated research and practice, Zhang Xiaodong finally succeeded inpresenting the lost dragon scale binding from the Tang Dynasty back to the public. 

The Thirty-two Seal Sutras of Vajra Paramita included in this exhibition is his very first work originating from dragon scale binding. Different from the way of reading that we are familiar with, dragon scale binding in the history of bookbinding in China is a form of binding from a transition period when page binding took the place of scroll binding. The book pages are orderly arranged like dragon scales and vibrate with the air when the scroll is unfolded, taking a quite terrific appearance of an alive floating curly dragon gradually uncovering itself in front of a reader’s eye. This bookbinding technique requires a very high degree of precision, and any slight deviation will affect the final overall effect. In the ancient time, this complex and sophisticated bookbinding technique was only passed down generation to generation within the royal family for the enjoyment of the emperors, hence the name “dragon scale”.

Between the layers of pages, the artist discovers a shallow, but entirely new space. Based on this, the artist further advanced the possibilities of this unique expression and began his artistic creation, which he named "Infinite Leaves". The birth of "Infinite Leaves" has a rather magical story, or it can be said that it came from a chance. When Zhang Xiaodong's Buddhist works were first exhibited at the Potala Palace, because of the unique climate of Tibet, the pages were all cocked, and the viewers involuntarily slid the pages with their fingers, surprised by the flashing pictures inside. After the exhibition, the work was placed in the artist's studio, and friends repeated the same action again and again when they came to visit. This gave the artist a wit: what if these curls were cut out? So, he picked up the scissors and began to trim, and a new expression appeared, and the pictures appeared unusually vivid. The superposition of pages builds a multi-latitude world, giving traditional binding techniques a new spatial meaning. The paper grows here and undulates and folds, fully demonstrating the artist's exquisite skills and unique perspective, and also elevating Zhang Xiaodong's artistic practice to a new height.

When Zhang Xiaodong’s work was shown at the Venice Biennale, Vincenzo Sanfo, the Italian curator wrote, “…At first glance, his works leave one surprised and stunned, as they are not easily identified. Maybe this is because of the introduction of Tibetan Buddhist elements. However, in my opinion, it actually grows from a more abstract form. I find in fact that his abstract expression to be very original, genius, intense, visually striking and of great poetically evocative strength…”

The creation of “Infinite Leaves” began with the early paintings representing the highest achievements of Chinese religious theme paintings such as Thangka and Dunhuang murals, and in recent years gradually turned to a more abstract expression of visual language, and this part of the work is also the main body of this exhibition. Here, visual elements, such as colors, shapes, etc. are dissolved and purified one by one, monochrome works appear more mysterious after encountering light and shadow, and when viewed from different lights and angles, a world of infinite changes appears in the paintings: there seems to be the shadow of a Buddha statue, there seems to be a rolling mountain range, and there seems to be a ripple of water, but it is faint and shadowy. The artist also experimented with adding lightboxes to explore the different effects that the work can achieve in light.

Through years of experience in book making, Zhang Xiaodong has become an expert in paper. In addition to the pure white characteristic rice paper, he also experimented with various materials such as silver paper and chestnut shell dyed paper, offering the viewer different visual experiences. Among them, “Not Sand” is made from this kind of special dyed paper. The artist obtained the “sand color” of the paper by soaking and fermenting chestnut shells for more than two years. If you look closely at the paper, you will find very subtle changes in color and texture. “Not Wood”, uses black and white ink to form another style, which gives different experiences when viewed from a distance and from close-up. This exhibition will also include the artist's latest work "Awakening the Blue at the Bottom of the Lake" where the color is added again after it was cancelled at one point, once again confirming the infinite possibilities of "Infinite Leaves".

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