张慧：叙述·动作诗
Zhang Hui：Narration: Action Poem
展期：2025年10月04日—11月12日
策展人：陆向怡
艺术家：张慧
地点：当代唐人艺术中心·中环｜香港中环皇后大道中80号H Queen’s 10楼
本次展览是张慧与当代唐人艺术中心合作的首次个人专案，展出其最新创作的九件绘画作品。张慧将不同形象汇集，串联成“节点式叙述”，探索“例如人”的双重性，展现被社会塑造却渴望突破的张力。This exhibition is the first solo project of Zhang Hui in collaboration with Tang Contemporary Art, featuring nine of his latest paintings. Zhang Hui collects various images to form a “nodal narrative,” exploring the duality of “example humans” and demonstrating the tension of being shaped by society yet desiring to break through.
当代唐人艺术中心荣幸宣布，将于2025年10月4日在当代唐人艺术中心香港中环空间推出艺术家张慧个展《叙事·动作诗》。本次展览是张慧与当代唐人艺术中心合作的首次个人项目，共展出了张慧最新创作的九件精彩绘画作品。展览由当代唐人艺术中心策展人陆向怡策划，将持续至11月12日。
几年前，张慧在教学中画过一个模特儿。最初，这只是练习形体、比例、结构和肌肉关系的训练方式。模特儿本身是一个对象，但随着时间推移，张慧渐渐意识到，他不仅仅是模特，他有社会身份，他是活生生的人。可练习者在画模特儿时，往往不是为了表现这个人，而是将其当作训练的媒介。于是，模特儿的身份变得很奇怪——既是「人」，又像石膏像一样，成为一种「例如人」的存在。从这里，张慧开始了更广泛的思考。在美术史中，绘画对象与视⻆的转变：从宗教题材中的神与教皇，到王权，再到1789年法国大革命后的⺠主与自由；从对神的仰视，到对国王的凝视，再到印象派的平视。人逐渐从神的衬托物，变成了可以被平视的对象。这条历史脉络也启发了艺术家去理解「例如人」——它既是一个对象，也是一个处于大序列中的节点。
张慧透过其创作，把不同的形象汇集起来：有美术史的形象，有三维建模的形象，也有从网络找到的图象。就像书法中的「集古字」，张慧把这些「形象」收集起来，然后串联成一种「节点式的叙述」。这里的叙述不是故事，而是一种连接和排列。这些情节和情境，都和张慧的经历有关。六十年代出生的张慧，正好经历了中国几个重要的社会变革节点。这里并非是宏大叙事，而是从「人」出发，从观察对象、思考人性入手，张慧把个人的经验转化为节点，进而展开画面。它们既继承了形象的庄重性，又被现实社会切割、挤压成「体制中的个体」，成为一种新的例证。人其实都是体制和制度中的「例如人」。我们被训练、改造、参照，甚至被当作实验的观察对象，就像被结构化和解剖过的形象。所以，张慧在画面里加入了许多小场景，它们并非具体人物的写照，而是经过改造的形象。例如「躺平」这个动作，在画里就透过椅子的姿态和身体的结合呈现出来。「例如人」是一种物件性的存在，它往往出现在大场景之中。环境的变化会改变其中的人，原本不变的个体，在空间与叙事的推动下，也会转化。例如在展览中一幅作品《无题·事实》中，一个男性形像下有明显的切割，仿佛是「一般百姓」的分界。
这种探索延伸到了「新年快乐」系列，也是本次展览三件大尺幅作品。贝克特（Samuel Beckett）的剧本《哦，美好的日子》（Oh les beaux jours）对张慧有很大影响，剧中人物透过回忆串联起一生中的片段，采用意识流的方式，互相否定、打乱时间，创造出一种更广阔的叙事空间。张慧借鉴这种方法创作了三件大尺幅作品，从某一年中选择某个节点，就像「那一天」一样，来代表一整年的经验。在画面结构上，张慧刻意加入「贺卡」的意味。贺卡象征着节庆和仪式，人们因此放弃了对真实性的执着，而转向象征性的理解，贺卡的平面性也让艺术家更自由地编织画面。
有时候，张慧笔下的人物并没有明确的相似性，他们更像是一首「动作诗」。很多动作来自劳动或日常事务。当人们手持工具时，动作是明确的；但一旦把工具抽掉，动作就变得抽象，像舞蹈一样。舞蹈与劳动之间，只差一个物件。一旦失去具体的对象，动作就从具体转向抽象，而这种抽象动作就能被重新编码、重新解读。动作本身不仅仅是一个姿势，它往往承载着文化与历史的厚度。例如美国小说家雷蒙·卡佛（Raymond Carver）在《大众力学》中写到的，夫妻在争吵中交接孩子的动作，瞬间便充满了情感、张力和意味。类似的例子在中国传统中也存在，如儒家所强调的「礼义之始，在于正容体」的姿态，每一个动作都充满了文化性和象征性。布莱希特（Bertolt Brecht）的史诗剧同样强调动作的历史性——任何一个动作都来自特定的社会背景与阶级认同。例如工人、农⺠、知识分子的动作都带着深刻的时代印记。但同时，如果一个动作失去了既定目的，它就会变成一种「开放性的动作」。这种不确定、不以逻辑为唯一标准的动作，可以产生新的修辞、新的关系，也可能带来某种意外的美感或趣味。
张慧特别关注这种「失效」或「中间状态」的动作：它既没有明确的起因，也没有既定的目的，却在过程中产生新的意义。这样的动作，才真正与自由相关。它避免了僵化的确定性，从而在开放的关系中建立新的文化可能。动作研究也让我们意识到它的时代性，例如二战时期的经典手势等，都带有强烈的文化和历史背景。又如90年代和当代的中国，不同世代的身体状态、举止方式，也反映着社会环境的变化。就像法国城市里连树木的修剪都呈现出军事化的秩序，这种「设计性」无所不在。因此，人既是被塑造的对象，也是塑造他人的主体。这种张力有时显得残酷，就像卡尔维诺（Italo Calvino）在小说里写到的：「战场上的人被劈成两半，身体残缺却灵魂交织」。我们在这样的寓言中看见了人既被空间改造，又在创造新的社会关系的复杂处境。张慧以画笔剖开「例如人」的双重性，既是体制规训下被结构化的「客体」，也是在动作里生⻑出自由的「主体」。那些「失效」或「中间状态」的动作，没有明确起因，当人不再是石膏像般的「训练媒介」，当动作超越了目的的束缚，我们便在身体的语言里，读懂了人最鲜活的模样。是被社会塑造却始终渴望突破的张力，是每一个「例如人」以动作写就的，关于存在与自我的史诗。
Tang Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the solo exhibition “Narration: Action Poem” by artist Zhang Hui, opening on October 4, 2025, at Tang Contemporary Art Hong Kong, Central space.
This exhibition marks Zhang Hui’s first solo project with Tang Contemporary Art, presenting nine new paintings. Curated by Tang Contemporary Art curator Fiona Lu, the exhibition will remain on view until November 12.
Several years ago, while teaching, Zhang Hui painted from a model. At first, it was merely an exercise in studying form, proportion, structure, and musculature. The model was simply an object. Yet over time, Zhang realized the models were more than that: they had a social identity, they were a living human being. Still, in practice, when drawing a model, the subject is not portrayed as a person but used as a medium for training. Thus, the model’s identity becomes strange—both “a person” and, at the same time, like a plaster cast, a kind of “for-example person.” From this realization, Zhang began broader reflections on shifts in subjects and perspectives throughout art history: from depictions of gods and popes in religious painting, to monarchs, to the emergence of democracy and freedom after the French Revolution of 1789; from looking up at divinity, to gazing upon kings, to the leveled gaze of the Impressionists. Over time, humans shifted from being accessories to gods into objects that could be regarded directly. This historical trajectory inspired Zhang’s understanding of the “for-example person”—at once an object, and a node within a larger sequence.
In his practice, Zhang gathers different types of imagery: from art history, from 3D modeling, from online sources. Much like the “collecting of ancient characters” in Chinese calligraphy, Zhang assembles and strings together these “images” into a “nodal narration.” This narration is not storytelling but a matter of connections and arrangements. The episodes and scenarios often tie back to Zhang’s own experiences. Born in the 1960s, Zhang lived through several critical moments of social transformation in China. His works do not pursue grand narratives, but begin from “the human”—from observation, from questions of humanity. Zhang turns his personal experiences into nodes, extending them into pictorial form. These works inherit the solemnity of figuration while also depicting individuals fragmented and compressed by social structures, transformed into examples of the “for-example person.” We are all, in a sense, such “for-example people,” trained, modified, referenced, even treated as subjects of experiment—like dissected figures. Thus, Zhang incorporates small vignettes into his paintings. These are not portraits of specific individuals, but altered figures. For instance, the gesture of “lying flat” is conveyed through the posture of a chair merging with a body. The “for-example person” exists as an object within a larger scene, subject to transformations by shifting environments and contexts. In the painting Untitled・Fact, for example, a male figure is visibly cut apart, as if marking the division line of the “ordinary citizen.”
This exploration extends into Zhang’s Happy New Year series, represented in this exhibition by three large-scale paintings. Samuel Beckett’s play Oh les beaux jours (translated as Happy Days) has been deeply influential for Zhang. In the play, the protagonist strings together fragments of the characters through memories, using a stream-of-consciousness style that denies chronology, displaces time, and opens broader narrative possibilities. Zhang adopts a similar method in these paintings, selecting a particular moment in a given year—like “that day”—to stand for the experience of an entire year. Structurally, Zhang deliberately imbues these works with the visual quality of greeting cards. Greeting cards symbolize celebration and ritual; they suspend the insistence on realism, shifting instead toward symbolic interpretation. Their flatness gives the artist freedom to weave his images more fluidly.
Often, Zhang’s figures do not bear clear resemblance to real individuals; they function more like “action poems.” Many gestures are drawn from labor or everyday tasks. When holding a tool, the action is specific; once the tool is removed, the gesture becomes abstract—akin to dance. The line between dance and labor is often no more than the absence or presence of an object. Without a concrete reference, actions slip from the literal into the abstract, ready to be recoded and reinterpreted. Actions are not simply poses; they carry the weight of culture and history. For example, American writer Raymond Carver in Popular Mechanics describes a couple fighting over their child, where a single gesture is laden with tension and meaning. Similarly, in Confucian tradition, the dictum “the beginning of propriety lies in the rectitude of body and form” imbues every gesture with cultural and symbolic weight. Bertolt Brecht’s epic theater likewise emphasized the historicity of actions—each gesture arises from a distinct social and class context. Workers, peasants, intellectuals—all bear the imprint of their era in their physical movements. At the same time, if an action loses its predetermined purpose, it becomes an “open action”—uncertain, illogical, yet capable of generating new rhetoric, new relations, and unexpected beauty.
Zhang is especially drawn to such “failed” or “intermediate” gestures—ones without clear cause or purpose, yet capable of generating meaning in the process. These are the actions most closely tied to freedom. They avoid rigid determinacy, instead opening spaces for new cultural possibility. Gesture studies also reveal their temporality: wartime hand signals, for instance, bear heavy cultural and historical weight. Likewise, in China during the 1990s and today, the bodily states and mannerisms of different generations reflect evolving social environments. Even the militarized trimming of trees in French cities embodies the pervasive presence of design and control.
Thus, people are both shaped objects and shaping agents. This tension can be harsh—like in Italo Calvino’s novel, where figures on a battlefield are split in two, bodies incomplete but spirits intertwined. In such parables, we witness humans reconfigured by space while simultaneously generating new social relations. With his brush, Zhang dissects the duality of the “for-example person”: at once an object structured by norms and a subject seeking freedom through action. These “failed” or “intermediate” gestures, free of fixed causality, move beyond the plaster cast as mere training aid. When action surpasses the confines of purpose, we begin to read in bodily language the liveliest essence of humanity: the tension of being molded by society yet forever striving to break free. Each “for-example person,” through action, composes an epic of existence and selfhood.
當代唐人藝術中心（中環）
地址： 中環皇后大道中80號H Queen’s 10樓
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