Vivien Zhang
Megaflora, 2022
Acrylic, oil, and spray paint on canvas
230 x 180 cm
90 1/2 x 70 7/8 in
90 1/2 x 70 7/8 in
Copyright The Artist
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In conceiving this work, Zhang was thinking about efficiency, positive versus negative space, and illusion. The plant motifs in this work reference palm trees. Zhang became interested in the idea...
In conceiving this work, Zhang was thinking about efficiency, positive versus negative space, and illusion.
The plant motifs in this work reference palm trees. Zhang became interested in the idea of the palm as a symbol for wealth, “worldliness”, colonisation, exoticism, and “the other”. This idea particularly exists in 'contained spaces' – the domestic home or glasshouses, which came to flourish in the later half of the 1800s, as the production of large sheet glass facilitated the construction glasshouses. Painting, in a way, for Zhang is her own form of containment.
The plant motifs in this work reference palm trees. Zhang became interested in the idea of the palm as a symbol for wealth, “worldliness”, colonisation, exoticism, and “the other”. This idea particularly exists in 'contained spaces' – the domestic home or glasshouses, which came to flourish in the later half of the 1800s, as the production of large sheet glass facilitated the construction glasshouses. Painting, in a way, for Zhang is her own form of containment.