Blooming Decision
23/05/2023
Medicine box, enamel, copper.
22*11*4.5cm
Blooming Decision
20/04/2023
Watercolor pigment, dead flower powder, alcohol, natural crystals, and minerals
36.5*27cm (no frame)
Blooming Decision
08/06/2023
Antique mirror, enamel, removable magnet.
35*43cm (with frame)
Blooming Decision
23/04/2023
Watercolor pigment, dead flower powder, alcohol, natural crystals, and minerals
35.5*42.5cm (no frame)
Blooming Decision
08/06/2023
Antique mirror, enamel, removeable magnet.
58*52cm (with frame)
Blooming Decisions
With a strong aesthetic and poetic identity, the work of Minghui Zhang uses narrative to discuss personal and familial narratives Here, the metaphor of a flower has been used to convey the experience of menopause, coming out of the empathy Zhang felt for her mother at this time of life. The work shows a kind of resistance and then a re-blooming of active choices and heading for a second spring. Through a mixed-media process—watercolour and sketching, playfully engaging with antique mirrors, generating intriguing enamel fragments—Zhang works through to a visualization and materialization of her mother's memory of past trauma and pain. Thematically her practice locates itself as a pursuit of personal histories. Her process takes its inspiration from this framework, playing with the effects of layered memories and the potential for healing that may come through encounters with objects, even after deep hurt.
Artist statment
Intro:
I trained initially as a jeweller. Though still engaging with the body and what it wears, and also with aspects of traditional jewellery crafting, my current work spans different media and forms and has become materially much more curious.
Thematically my practice is locating itself in pursuing personal histories. My process takes its inspiration from this, playing with the effects of layered memories and the potential for healing that may come through encounters with objects, even after deep hurt.
I trained initially as a jeweller. Though still engaging with the body and what it wears, and also with aspects of traditional jewellery crafting, my current work spans different media and forms and has become materially much more curious.
Thematically my practice is locating itself in pursuing personal histories. My process takes its inspiration from this, playing with the effects of layered memories and the potential for healing that may come through encounters with objects, even after deep hurt.
During my study at the RCA, my output has built on my all-previous traditional professional knowledge and has gradually moved from technical expertise to working with emotion and narrative. Part of the reason for the image blurring and texture layering in the works is to recreate the use of old objects to increase the viewer's understanding of the time dimension. One way to try to convey the perceived time is through decay, evoking the past and the present.
minghui@iaaonline.co.u