Flower Vessels by Tianzong Jiang

Art Installation Feburary 7 2025

Intro

Tianzong Jiang is a Chinese-American artist who explores how culture, identity, history, and self connect. Drawing on personal challenges, Tianzong transforms vulnerability and curiosity into performances. Through video, installation, sculpture, and performance, Tianzong creates immersive experiences that disrupt the seriousness of art and challenge our view of the everyday.

“The output of my art practice is not only a physical object but also manifests the mental processes and power of the awakened consciousness to engage multiple interpretations.”

Parking lot with a row of decorative bollards in front of a shopping center, including a Dollar Tree store, SUVs parked, and a mountain range in the background under a clear blue sky.

Flower Vessel

Array of large bullets arranged on a parking lot pavement, some with white patterned covers, casting long shadows as the sun sets or rises.
Various decorative vases, with one in the foreground showing white paint and crackle glaze, among other dark-colored vases with different textures and patterns.
Close-up of a black metal parking lot barrier post with water droplets on its surface, with another similar post to the right. Blurred cars and buildings are in the background under clear skies.

“Flower Vessels” presents a delicate yet profound exploration of culture and power. The ceramic pieces in this work mimic artillery shells forms while using traditional Chinese ceramic techniques.

Some are covered with metallic glazes, others are shaped with pockmarks or bark-like cracks, and still others are covered neatly with handwritten “哈哈哈” (hahaha) or “嘻嘻嘻” (laughter). These inscriptions carry a cross-cultural ambiguity, giving different meanings to different viewers: to those who understand Chinese, they convey a provocative humor that satirizes the solemnity of power; to those unfamiliar with Chinese, they appear more like traditional decorative patterns that complement the ceramic’s aesthetic design.

In the exhibition space, the ceramics are arranged in neat rows, it’s giving a military parade that amplifies the symbolic tension of power and lets viewers sense the coercive nature of order. However, the humorous inscriptions undermine this solemnity, injecting a relaxed but ironic atmosphere.

This dual tension runs throughout the piece’s visual design and reflects Tianzong’s deep contemplation of identity and power.

Interpretation

Full article available at the end of this page.

Behind the Scenes

Close-up of a row of old, painted, and rusted metal pipes on a store shelf.
Close-up photo of several used, rusted and scratched metal pipes or barrels lined up horizontally.
Ceramic test tubes being fired in a kiln with interior walls lined with ceramic bricks.
A brown poster on a white wall displaying eight white line drawings. The drawings appear to be different shapes or parts of chairs or furniture.
A shelf with various ceramic and metallic objects, including a tall black, white, and patterned ceramic piece, a small white ceramic object, and a large metallic cylinder.
Two black-and-white diagrams of a missile or rocket are taped to a white wall, with handwritten notes and measurements around them.
Engineering diagram and handwritten notes for a missile or projectile with dimensions and specifications taped to a white wall.

From the Artist

“Inspired by my residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts, located in a repurposed army barracks within a former military base, I created ‘Flower Vessels.’ I employed pottery techniques to craft a large formation of vases resembling 155 mm howitzer shells.

In this project, I perform as a one-person munitions plant, transforming objects once associated with destruction into quiet and inert flower vessels.

This transformation represents a shift from violence to tranquility, reimagining these symbols of conflict into quiet and contemplative objects.”

A person dressed in white sitting cross-legged on a chair with a beige background, a statue of a man in a seated meditative pose with mud splattered on it, and an empty chair with mud splattered on it against a similar background.

Clay Hitting Self by Tianzong Jiang

Performance Art Feburary 7 2025

Clay Hitting Self

"Clay Hitting Self" is the most representative work in Tianzong’s "Hitting Self" series.

The video records the artist sitting cross-legged with eyes closed in front of the camera, repeatedly struck by clumps of clay(slip) thrown from off-screen. The coarse texture of the clay and its unpredictable splatter create a visually tense atmosphere. With each hit and echo, a human-shaped outline gradually appears on the white background wall. In the end, Tianzong leaves the frame, leaving only the imprint on the wall. This mark is not only the result of the artist’s body confronting external forces, but also a symbolic interaction between fear and action in the creative process.

In our interview with Tianzong, he shared that he once hesitated to act many times in his life, driven by a fear of killing possibilities. He believed that as long as he avoided making decisions, infinite potential would remain.

However, in this work, clay becomes a medium that embodies his rediscovery of improvisation in creation. While clay is traditionally used for making ceramics, here it serves not only as a shaping material but also as a symbol of fear and breakthrough. By transforming the simple act of throwing clay into an artistic language, Tianzong highlights the directness and raw quality of creation. The clay’s impact is both an externalized physical struggle and a redefinition of the material’s meaning. Although viewers cannot experience it in person, the tension in the video’s audio and visuals draws them into the dynamic creative process, prompting them to ask: Is clay the foundation of creation, or a silent act of resistance?

A person covered in mud, sitting cross-legged on a chair, with mud splattered on a wall behind them.

From the Artist

“The Hitting Self series was inspired by the legend of Bodhidharma, the Zen patriarch who brought Zen Buddhism from India to China. It is said that he meditated for nine years gazing at the wall of a cave, where his shadow was imprinted upon the wall’s surface.

I recreated traces of the "self" with acrylic, ink, and ceramic slip by pelting myself with these materials. The resulting silhouettes bring me in proximity to the legend with a bit of wit and irony.”

Credits

By

Flower Vessel

Tianzong Jiang

Rocky Lewycky

Christian Bonner

Clay Hitting Self

Tianzong Jiang

Jordan K Siangco

Sean Howe

Cristine Blanco

Studio Visit Photo by

timzoneking@gmail.com

Contact

Interpreatation by

Article featuring Tianzong

A young man playing a guitar and singing into a microphone on a stage with a band and floral decorations in the background.

February 7 2024

Between Clay and Ceramics: Tianzong’s Contemporary Koan

Is clay the foundation of creation, or a silent act of resistance?