HOGEN
HD color video with sound, 9'13''
The cave is one of the most well-known metaphors in classical philosophy; it is a liminal place that allows us to distinguish the fabricated from the real. In Book VII of The Republic, there is a passageway behind the trapped people that connects the entire cave.
In HOGEN, the cave is like an apparatus that links reservoirs, karst caverns, Daoist temples, mountain forests, and cities, passing through complex concealed topographies. As the cave continues to adjust focus, Zhang’s inquiries into topology, biology, spelunking, archeology, and Daoist grotto-heavens dissolve into vague and even directionless memories and visions. Compared to the Platonic moment of awakening, entering the cave passageway is more like a series of visual poems that constantly evade definition or a string of concise Zen koans. Zhang notes, “It’s meaningless and leads nowhere; it simply invites you to enter, and constantly fall down.”
Music from generative.fm
洞察之目
彩色高清有声影像，9分13秒，2021
洞穴作为古典哲学最著名的比喻之一，是我们区分虚拟和现实两者之间的认知阈限。在《理想国》的第七卷中，被困在洞穴中的人们身后，有一条可以贯通整个洞穴的通道。
在《洞察之目》中，这条通道如同一个视觉机器，联通水库、溶洞、道观、山林、城市，穿透盘根错节的潜隐地形。在洞穴持续变焦中，艺术家关于拓扑学、生物学、洞穴探险与考古和道教洞天的寻访也溶散为含糊不清的、甚至是迷失方向的记忆和想象。相较于柏拉图式的觉醒时刻，进入洞穴的通道更像是一首首不断逃逸定义的视觉诗歌，或是一桩桩精短的禅宗公案，如艺术家所述，“毫无意义，也不通向任何地方，仅仅邀请你进入，并不断掉落。”
音乐来自generative.fm