Zhang Ruyi

Forced Separation

€1,200

Edition of 1527.5 (H) × 35.0 (W) cmShipping est. 2 weeks

Allegorical cacti float above a grid in a copper plate etching by Zhang Ruyi.

Ruyi uses cacti to represent herself. The ‘forced separation’ of organic forms and rigid systems is a consistent theme in her work, and she keeps a daily log of the plants she cultivates by sketching them onto graph paper.

Forced Separation transforms one of the artist's early drawings into a copper plate etching for the first time. This particular type of etching was her medium of choice as a student. In the artwork, a layered orange grid contains a row of cacti – rendered in a “state of dying” and reconfigured from life to fit within its constraints.

“The title is a relatively objective description. It represents an expression of performance and an individual's blurred emotions within a densely structured urban environment.”

Framing

Prints can be ordered float-mounted in one of three framing options

Medium

Four colour polymer gravure etching, printed using two copper plates on 250gsm Velin Arches Blanc paper

Authentication

Signed and dated (2022) by artist in lower right corner

Certificate of Authenticity

Arrives with a certificate of authenticity.

Release date

July 16, 2024

Payment

Pay with bank card, crypto, Apple Pay or Google Pay. If you wish you to use an alternative payment method, get in touch.

Policies

Returns and refunds

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Close-up of Zhang Ruyi as she stands on a green stairway

Zhang Ruyi1 collaborationZhang questions everything. Her intuitive mixed-media practice juxtaposes materials to reframe ideas of everyday life. Exploring the relationship between personal identity and the urban landscape, her central motif – cacti – functions as an unlikely self-portrait. Meditating on the effects of rapid urbanisation, Zhang creates subversive, and quietly surreal interior displays in concrete. By hand-casting cement with a mould, Zhang enshrines the quintessential construction material in plant form. She also uses ceramic grid tiles, an architectural pattern that frequently features in Chinese urban neighbourhoods, and originally inspired by the patterning of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian – its repetition tranquil and harmonising.

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