Triggered: Hana Zhang

©Hana Zhang & Eugene Lee, 2019.

By Hana Zhang

It is difficult for me not to think about what my body means to me. It is the container of my thoughts and feelings. I feed and nurture it, so that it may foster my well-being. Can I possibly escape out of the body if I dislike it when I look at it in the mirror? Can I abandon it when it brings me pain through illness and disease? 

This photograph was taken on a typically sultry New York summer’s day in 2019, to mark my move to Brooklyn. 

Lately, my ideas address the fragile relationship between the Body and the Self. My works can attend to body image, whether involves self-portraiture, an inner monologue of my conscious thoughts(Just Another Normal Day, 2019), or figurines of animals who seek out plastic surgeries in a utopian world(Pet Paradise, 2020). 

Perhaps the South African artist William Kentridge says it aptly when he states,“ I don’t think you can escape yourself by the choice of subject matters.”

You can see more of Hana’s work in her website