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.”
Flower Vessel
“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
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.”
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?
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
February 7 2024