Artist Talk with Zhang XiaoDong and Guided Viewing of Zhang's First Solo Exhibition in Hong Kong: "Flow"

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present an artist talk with Chinese national treasure Zhang XiaoDong and guided viewing of Zhang’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong: Flow.

This exhibition will showcase Zhang’s internationally acclaimed works Dragon scale binding “Diamond Sutra in 32 zhuan (seal) fonts” and “Dream of The Red Chamber” in Accordion-Dragon scale binding, there will also be 4 works that were never-before-exhibited that signposted the transformation and breakthrough in Zhang’s artistic career.

As the successor of the intangible cultural heritage Dragon scale binding and inventor of Accordion-Dragon scale binding, Zhang XiaoDong steadily created 8 binding works. From the Buddhist classics Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra to “Dream of The Red Chamber” and “Poetry & Calligraphy of Mao Zedong” etc, Zhang brought the Dragon scale binding that budded in Tang, bloomed in Song and revived in the modern days to an international stage, and had his solo exhibition in the La Biennale di Venezia as a guest artist.

The curator of this exhibition — Sin Sin Man— put the focus on Zhang’s enlightenment of the heart and his inheritance of old to develop the new in his contemporary works. Zhang’s binding works are exquisite and demand great patience and self-cultivation for their making. The 4 new works are the extensions of the artist’s personal work “Thousand Pages” series, using tension-filled visuals and details that are intricate yet orderly, he leads the audiences into his world, voyaging through the abstract and the figurative, the intervention and the laissez-faire.

Photo credit:
Dragon scale binding “Diamond Sutra in 32 zhuan (seal) fonts”
Courtesy of Sin Sin Fine Art