Breaking the Chain: A Studio Visit with Hong Chun-Zhang
The hustle and bustle in current A.I.R Hong Chun-Zhang’s studio never ceases! After completing an ambitious project at the Volland Foundation, which consisted of a 100 ft-long “Prairie Dragon” constructed from locally harvested hay bales, corn stalks, mesh, and textiles as well as a new body of work titled “Hair of the Dragon” in their gallery space, she has turned her attention to participating in an exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. The show's chief curator is Susan Earle and is funded by the NEA.
The exhibition, titled Bold Women, “will investigate the visionary work of women as well as several gender non-conforming artists. It explores the ways that women have pushed the boundaries of art and spurred critical social and cultural change across generations and geographies. Within this broad purview, it emphasizes the important contributions of Black, Indigenous, and global artists of color, LGBTQ+ artists, and artists of intersecting identity.”
Zhang’s piece for the exhibition, titled “Bound,” will be a 5 ft x 17 ft, double-sided work that explores the contrast between the open spaces of rural areas and the densely populated urban setting. Using barbed wire and chains to depict their respective environments, Zhang evokes the history and implications of these materials and their use in slavery and World War II to contain and trap. She sees these materials as representing confinement both within the human body itself as of animals as a whole as well. Hong also continues to think about the themes of the Kansas landscape,womanhood, motherhood, and immigration as well. Her aim with the work is to highlight powerful work and women who are still fighting for their rights and equal opportunities across the globe.
On one side of the 17 ft banner, is an open composition with one line of barbed wire spanning across the entire side of the piece, and on the other side is a very densely packed composition of interlocking chains that evoke the claustrophobic feeling of an urban environment. The barbed wire was directly inspired by the city of Lawrence, where Zhang lives as there used to be one of the largest barbed wire factories in the country there which opened in the 1890’s due to the lack of trees in the prairie landscape which made it impossible to use wooden fencing on farms and ranches. Barbed wire was the solution to this issue. She has also incorporated her trademark use of hair into both sides of the work, which she uses to explore her identity as an immigrant, woman, and mother. The piece will be stretched from four corners of Italian Alcantara fabric and hang horizontally with chains hooked onto two columns that it will hang between evoking a stretched cowhide, reiterating the themes of confinement shared between animals and humans.
The Spencer Museum will show two of Zhang’s pieces, a large horizontal charcoal on paper tornado drawing ( 4 ft x 10 ft) from the Spencer’s collection and this new double sided ink piece. This will be the first time these pieces, and many others from the collection will be shown to the public. Bold Women opens on February 18, 2025 and runs through July 6, 2025.
“The exhibition is co-developed with a diverse group of advisors, including Lawrence-based textile artist and educator Marla A. Jackson; Kansas City community arts advocate Rose Bryant; Kimberli Gant, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum; and Toronto-based Anishinaabe-kwe Indigenous art curator and artist Wanda Nanibush.”
For more information about the upcoming exhibition go to https://www.spencerart.ku.edu/exhibition/bold-women
You can learn more about Zhang at https://www.hongchunzhang.com