Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalists

ZHANG XU zhan’s solo exhibition – Jungle Jungle creates fantastic and vibrant animal characters in costumes with his mastery of stop-frame animations of paper dolls and installations of paper sculptures, creating a primal and grotesque mirroring world of wilderness. ZHANG XU zhan excels at utilizing the texture, durability, creases, folds, and colors of paper to construct scenes of an emotionally rich visual tactility and a theatrical aesthetics immersed in gloom and suspense. In terms of production and realization, the exhibition exquisitely combines various professional fields, including literature, music, fine art, parade formation, Beijing opera and photography, expanding the frameworks of animation and installation art. The overall subject of the works is concerned with the challenge of survival of all living beings, and points straightforwardly to the desire about physical metamorphosis and the rebirth of the soul, crossing cultural and language barriers to weave a unique life philosophy. (Commentator / TSENG Shao-Chien)

Artwork Introduction 

The content of Jungle Jungle stems from Animal Story Series initially developed in 2018, when ZHANG XU zhan conducted his research in Southeast Asia. His recent work concentrates on the dialogue and connection between the locality of Taiwanese culture and the globality of international culture. Through creative reproduction, he not only uncovers the general principles of cultural mobility, but also integrates the uniqueness of underlying similarities and heterogeneities. This solo exhibition begins with folk tales commonly found around the world. Viewed as the vehicle of narratives, they lead the audience to see through a compounded perspective and the changing images of animals to further discuss the experience and exploration of culture, identity, globality, and locality.

About the Artist 

ZHANG XU zhan (b. 1988) was born in Taipei, and received his MFA in New Media Art from the Taipei National University of the Arts. He works with animation and video installation, through which he has inquired into the possibilities of animation as an explorative viewing experience. Specializing in mixing expanded cinema, experimental animation, installation, large-scale multichannel projection, and creation of sculptural objects, his works are often consisting of peculiar and bizarre images, which are idiosyncratically incorporated with contemporary life experiences revolving around the thinking about cultural mobility informed by his observations of social experiences, childhood memories, and the techniques and skills of paper doll making.

Production Team

[ Jungle Jungle —  ZHANG XU zhan Solo Exhibition ] Team

Producer | CHEN HSIANG WEN

Art Coordinator | CHAN YU CHU

ZHANG XU ZHAN、CHEN HSIANG WEN、CHAN YU CHU、FENG CHI CHUN、TSENG JUI HSUAN、RAITO LOW、CHEN LIAN JIE、TANG KAN KEI、YANG CHIH LING、HUANG SHIUAN、ZHANG WAN YING、HSIAO YA TING、WU TZU CHING、WANG TERRENCE、FENG ZIMING、 WWWW Prairie WWWW、MA WEI YUAN、LI YI FAN、XIE MENG ZHE、LIN CHENG YU、LAI SHIN YU、KO TA SHENG、YELLOW DOT DOT

《Compound Eyes of Tropical》Video Team

Artist&director | ZHANG XU zhan

Producer& Art Coordinator | CHAN YU CHU、ZHANG XU zhan

Art assistant | CHAN YU CHU、FENG CHI CHUN、TANG KAN KEI、HUANG MING HUEI、ZHANG XU zhan

Light design | TSENG JUI HSUAN

Animator | ZHANG XU zhan、Raito Low、Chen Liang Jie

Sound and Music | WWWW Prairie WWWW、FENG ZIMING

Written consultant | FENG CHI CHUN

Photography consultant | CHEN KUAN YU

Folklore consultant | Hsu Tai ying

Image synthesis | YANG CHIH LING、CHAN YU CHU、ZHANG XU zhan

Photography 、Editor、Puppet | ZHANG XU zhan