Square

Zhang Dali

张大力

Production date
2014

Object Detail

Media
resin
Measurements
10 figures, dimensions variable
Notes
For Square (2014) Zhang Dali hired migrant workers as his models, creating moulds of their bodies in plaster, and casting them in resin. Stark white, in wrinkled clothing, they stand slumped in defeated postures with pigeons alighting on their arms and shoulders. Far from the heroic figures of revolutionary sculpture, or the western classical ideal, these people are weary, symbolising suffering and endurance. These melancholy figures inhabit a liminal space between life and death, and the pigeons (created with the technology of 3D printing) are like phantoms. The title alludes to Tiananmen Square, a potent symbol of state authority. Any migrant workers tempted to gather there would be quickly moved on, and in reality, no pigeons inhabit its vast spaces. Zhang Dali draws our attention to absence, to a shadow world of memory and loss. The closed eyes of the figures intentionally recall death masks, like that of the famous writer Lu Xun.
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Accession number
2015.106
Artist details