Ruining Zhang

There are three key elements in my work: plants, poetry and time

I feel many of my ideas also reflect the relationship between cities and people. But I prefer soft and abstract things and aspire to visualize them. That's why I have chosen plants as a key inspiration within my practice. In my mind, plants and machinery are the same, just as workers and gardeners are the same. They both exist in a symbiotic relationship with each other. More importantly, they must co-exist with each other in order to develop.

I wrote a lot of poetry from and on nature which recorded the story of what was happening to me at the time, the verses were like a diary for me, so I engraved them on metal. For me, I like materials that change, when they change we have a sense of time passing. I engrave poems written for plants on metal, it's a connection with the plant, and as the plant changes both the metal and the poem begin to change too. I am interested in seeing the energy between the viewer and the piece, when the viewer is able to connect with the piece, meaning begins to emerge. When the wearer wears my work they feel the touch of the plants and even smell them. When the wind is used as a medium to connect with my work, you witness the shape of time and hear the sounds made by the swaying between the metal and the plants. When the work interacts with a specific object, the object will judge it because of its own context or emotion, and this judgement is what I hope to bring to the viewer.

I like to allow my body to feel what is happening in the moment, to follow my sense of touch, and gather inspiration for feedback. Originality, feeling, philosophical exploration, and finding inspiration are the ways I communicate with my art and the work inevitably reveals a way of looking at the world and letting it carry you with it.