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ZHANG Dali biography | artworks | events

Zhang Dali was born in 1963 in Harbin, Heilongjian Province. He graduated in 1988 from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Beijing where he currently resides.


Zhang’s goal throughout his body of work is to call attention to the changes taking place in Chinese society due primarily to the destruction of long standing communities. He believes that “human beings are the products of their environment.” Through his art, he wants to “demonstrate – to those subjected to control and numbed by habit – the truth of the afflictions that we suffer.”


Zhang is renowned for his prolific graffiti which changed the face of Beijing in the nineties. He spray-painted the outline of an anonymous bald head on hundreds of walls and buildings, many of which had been destined for demolition. These images speak through the debris caused by demolition in Beijing, leaving a mark that questioned the silence of Beijing’s residents. The work confronts conformity and brings attention specifically to the ruins left in the wake of mass construction and an attempted confiscation of the past. Zhang used his heads as a tool to begin a dialogue with Beijing. Eventually, Zhang evolved his ideas in the Demolition series where he chiseled his head’s silhouette out of the structures of soon-to-be demolished buildings. Dali has commented that “people in our country, as a nationality we don’t express ourselves a lot. When people look at it (the work) I want them to think, ‘what happened here?’ I want them to express themselves more freely.”


The photographs are the result of an interesting crossover between painting, drawing, documentary photography, fine art photography, graffiti, performance, sculpture and public art. The result is a true dialogue between art and society, creativity and destruction, silence and expression.

 

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