This artist does that: Chinese Ash, American Flesh

– Zhang Huan, 12m², Beijing, 1994

Tehching Hsieh made me think of Zhang Huan’s endurance performances, like the beautiful one in which he leaked blood suspended above an electric hotplate in a Chinese warehouse, the audience informally seated around the walls, the blood spitting in miniature eruptions like lava from a tiny volcano. He has turned away from performance, it appears, and is making works using ash gathered from Buddhist shrines.

– Zhang Huan, My America, 1999

– Zhang Huan, Seeds, incense ash, charcoal & resin on canvas, 2007