
Zhang Huan
Few serious artists today could call their work “a metaphor for the human condition.” Zhang Huan doesand with a straight face. He also states, “The body is my most basic language,” and claims, “I wanted to measure myself against insurmountable limits.” His recent retrospective, “Altered States”the Asia Society’s first for a living artistexamined three career periods. In the early nineties, in the art enclave of post-Tiananmen Beijing (dubbed the “East Village” after another once-risky hot spot), Zhang specialized in simple, grueling performances, confronting absurd situations