The Dimensions of Double Images

by Xia Yun
September 2007

Going through Zhong Shan's work with his creating thoughts, we can discover that he began to develop and express in "Double Images" as early as 1996.

"Double Images", literally implies pairs of images. "Image" means appearance, features or aspect, but it also carries the meaning of examination, observation and result of comparison. Zhong Shan's "Double-image" art takes peoples' appearance and objects as its main subject matter and then expresses them in the form of a pair of pictures. The two pictures are placed side by side, and can be compared and observed, expressing the meaning of two in one and the relationship between concepts such as the internal and the external; the ego and the alter ego; the real and the virtual image, sense and sensibility, spirit and material, ideal and reality and so on. Zhong Shan's art shows that the symbols bearing the weight of human social and historical culture and contemporary ideology are able to influence people, events and things in contemporary society, revealing the colorful world of today.

Zhong Shan's original inspiration for "Double Images" comes from mirror images. As he said, "Once when looking into the mirror, I felt that the relation between man and his image in the mirror could symbolize the relation between the virtual and the real. I want to express this relationship more vividly in my painting. Although we cannot see ourselves blink in the mirror, in a pair of "Double Image" paintings, we can not only see this in the mirror, but we can also see another aspect of ourselves in our ideal world." This original inspiration and understanding via mirror images of the virtual and the real, the ideal and the reality, gradually began to enter and influence the artist's creations.

This point is reflected in his work, Mirror 3, which was created in 2004. In this work, he introduced a form in which the real image and the mirror image appear together in the same painting. The work not only shows an interesting back-to-back image of a person (with the real image in the foreground) that would be impossible to see in reality but also portrays another image from the artist's imagination (with the virtual image that is located in the background). Here, the mirror essentially gives a person the opportunity to face themselves. This not only allows one to see things that are invisible in reality, but also dimly reflects an ideal image of the self, and in that reflection, one is able to discover many things that are separate from, but dependent on, oneself.

Maybe, in the artist's eyes, the mirror image, although it is outside the subject, at the same time provides the identity of the subject. In other words, the subject is able to identify him or herself through the objective mirror image. The mirror image is another version of the self, a dissimilar and unreal illusion, but it reflects the real subject and inspires the artist to contemplate the self and the people and events and things in today's society.

In the Gene series of work, the artist portrays a scene in which animals are together with people. Judging from the title, the artist seems to be trying to explore the essence and relationship of man and beast. No matter what form they take, the mirror images of the animals remain the same, but the mirror images of man change. Sometimes man's mirror image is consistent with his self-image in reality (just as it is for the animal in Gene 2, for example), but most of the time, the images of man change (see Gene 1 and Gene 4). Maybe the different reflected images of man and animal show that although they both have the ability to identify and imitate, the difference is that man desires to be recognized by others and the outside world. He takes on more social, historical, cultural and ideological symbolism, both consciously and subconsciously. His self and his mirror image are, to a large extent, images of symbolism and not of the true self.

The artist's vivid care and understanding of the self and people allow him to stand alone and observe the changes that occur in life, events and things from a great height, sensing the essence and joy of life. The artist is like a child sitting at the edge of a road, looking silently at the traffic and people passing by. Why are they rushing? What are they busy with? What is their life like? What are they really like? What are they thinking about? He is watching life as if he is an outsider. He can be touched by almost every scene, person and event, thereby provoking his deep but humorous thoughts and artistic expression. He is also an insider, living in the same time and space as the people, objects and events that he observes. All that he experiences affects and permeates him, allowing him to gain an insight into it. The return of Hongkong to China (July 1st, 2007), the events of SARS (Instant Hero), China's manned space rocket (Shenzhou-5), the coal mines that are the frequent scenes of accidents (Lucky Underpants), the battle for wages by rural workers (Nothing is Impossible)…all of these events, along with the great changes wrought by the internet revolution, are vivid examples of life changes that have gradually permeated his creation.

In this way the artist has moved away from reflecting the people and events around him, along with the ideals and realities that he observes in people for people in the realm of urban life, to portraying an understanding and explanation of important news events. In his eyes, "great events are everywhere in people's life, and they provide space for people's imaginations. Imagination can help to expand and develop the self and is itself greater than the reality in which we exist. This is reflected in the contrast of double images."

The continuous development and change of events and things, the double- and often multi-angled perspectives that they present, the inflated importance of the self in one's mind's eye and the helplessness and limitations of the common people can be contemplated and exhibited multi-dimensionally through the form of expression of "Double Images". In order to convey his ideas, the artist went on to change his form of expression from one that included both real and mirror images in the same picture, to a form that uses pairs of pictures.

Certainly, according to the artist, the choice of the pair format for his work has been influenced by the attractive imagery and meaning of the pair, as illustrated by the modern Chinese idioms: "in pairs" and "good things come in pairs". Nowadays, society has come to show a degree of appreciation for certain identical copying techniques such as cloning and the modern art of replication. At the same time, in sense and concept, this form allows the two states portrayed by the Double Images to be endlessly interchangeable. So when people see one picture, they can also observe an image showing a second dimension, and even imagine a third, or a fourth interpretation. This not only adds a sense of delight and humor for the admirer, but the double image concept also brings a multi-dimensional quality to the work, allowing boundless room for the extension of the thinking and imagination.

The artist once mentioned that "one picture is in the mirror, one is outside the mirror. The corresponding tension between the two pictures brings me an interesting and vibrant feeling. That's why I started to adopt the concept of double images. Two pictures express the correspondence between two separate images that are absolutely different yet still related to each other." He added: "I started to adopt the form of double pictures. In my work, one picture is the cause and the other is the effect; one is reality, and the other is the imagination; one is the beginning, and the other is the next stage in the proceedings… The change and relationship of events and things, different realities and the virtual dimensions; they all extend from within the picture. When facing the work, the observer is able to visualize or imagine many more possibilities."

The just-completed work, July 1st, 2007, was inspired by the 10th anniversary of the handover of Hongkong back to China. The simple but pithy pictures contrast with the common people's incredible difficulties and great excitement, leading to a fiercely intense atmosphere of celebration at the time. The colors contrast with each other, seeming to suggest the different moods and states of the two groups of the same people in different space-time contexts. The corresponding double image set shows an infinite extension in dimension and imagination.

A man living on the earth and in society is probably living imaginatively in the space between humankind and the reality of the world. People, events and things are changing all the time, and they present their specific images in reality. The corresponding relationship of reality and imagination reveals the "natural" individuality and split personality of people living in this time, and the dialectical relations between emptiness and solidity, truth and falsehood, or the goodness and evil of events and things. The artist floats between these opposites and sometimes goes beyond this superficiality to envision the basic states of existence of them all, along with their infinitely extendable dimensions.

Zhong Shan's art of the Double Image already contains some philosophical appeal and this could go even further, just as his work may go on to be more widely exhibited in future.