To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain

1995

Chinese, born 1965

Chinese language and culture abounds with proverbs—for example, the cheer for repetitive labor, “As long as you persist, you can file a metal pole into a needle.” Here, several naked bodies lie flat in a pyramid against a misty background of jade-colored mountains. This work documents a 1995 performance referencing the Chinese adage, “Beyond the mountain, there are higher mountains yet,” commonly uttered as a reminder to have humility because there is always someone more talented than you.

Zhang Huan’s piece is a self-acknowledged act of hubris in challenging Mount Miaofeng’s height. He measured one of the mountain’s peaks at 86.393 meters, and he and his friends added exactly one meter in height with their stacked bodies. Zhang acknowledged the effort as temporary and utterly futile—not a single person noticed what they were doing (even though the performance has since become an iconic moment in Chinese art through this photograph). Zhang exposes the banal vanity of human action in the natural world: any achievement of greatness through unwavering persistence is merely momentary.

Chromogenic print on Fuji archival paper

50 7/8 x 71 in. (129.2 x 180.3 cm)

Gift of the ContemporaryArtProject, Seattle

2002.23

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM Collects: ContemporaryArtProject, Dec. 21, 2002 - Apr. 6, 2003.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Conceal/Reveal, Dec. 20, 2014 - June 21, 2015.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms, July 22, 2022 - ongoing [on view beginning July 22, 2022].

Published ReferencesYoung, Tara, "SAM Collects: ContemporaryArtProject" 2002, Seattle Art Museum, 2002, pg. 20

Upchurch, Michael. "'Conceal/Reveal' at Seattle Asian Art Museum," in The Seattle Times, January 2, 2015, online (http://seattletimes.com/html/thearts/2025353004_saamconcealrevealxml.html)

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