Chinese Shanshui Tattoo 7
Huang Yan
黄岩
Production date
1999
Object Detail
Media
C-type print
Measurements
80 x 100 cm
Notes
From 1999 Huang Yan began to photograph bodies – his own and others – with their skin covered by paintings resembling Song or Yuan Dynasty literati paintings in the shan shui tradition. Mountain peaks and trees follow the forms of spine and shoulder blades or trail down the arms and across the chests of his subjects, who were first covered with a coating of chalky white paint before they became human canvases. The paintings were done by Huang’s wife, classically trained painter, Zhang Tiemei. The Chinese Shanshui Tattoo series literally inscribes Chinese art history onto the skin of his contemporary models – and onto his own – as a reminder that no matter how Chinese society has changed in modern times, this rich history is an inescapable element of a Chinese identity. Ironically, given the title, Huang suggests that this cultural heritage is not indelible, like a tattoo, but rather could be as easily washed away as paint on the skin unless care is taken to value and preserve it. In his artist statement for the major 2004 exhibition ‘Between Past and Future: New Chinese Photography and Video Art’ Huang Yan said: ‘Mountains and rivers are places where my heart and soul find peace; mountains and rivers are sites where my physical body belongs …’ Artists working with ink and brush to paint beautiful landscapes were working with an expression of their qi – their ‘breath’, or spirit – which also inhabited the mountains, trees and streams that they painted. All became one. To paint a shan shui landscape on the skin is also an expression of the universal harmony of ‘all under heaven’.
Accession number
2006.017