Ash Zing (b.1990) graduated with a degree in biological sciences, focusing on molecular biology of tumors and viruses. He worked as a freelance writer, broker, manager of intangible cultural heritage and poverty alleviation projects and photographer. He now lives in Montreal and Shanghai as a conceptual artist.
Who is Ash Zing? Following Ariadne's thread thrown from the air, we'll start with this name, a symbol of one’s personality, looking for the answers hidden in various clues. The works presented in this solo exhibition have distinct cognitive characteristics, allowing us to see the expulsion of representation as well as expression. The language of his works tends to be minimal and abstract. Just like Judaism's prohibition on idolatry, his works reveal the mysterious presence by presenting the absence of images, therefore summon people’s intentions to enrich them. As Derrida said, “self-portrait is a ruin from the beginning” (au commencement il y a la ruine). Gazing at oneself is always like facing an “impossible totality.” Therefore, instead of restoring a young artist's realistic portrait, there is a kind of dynamics of difference and heterogeneity derived from his works that creates numerous anonymous ghost subjects, complementing the self-images through the visitors’ interaction and imagination.
The self-referential nature is implied in Ash Zing’s works and reflected in his conceptual practice. The prefix “meta-” means “self-referential.” For instance, “meta-poem,” “meta-novel,” or “meta-painting” share similar inquiries of internal mechanisms of the specific medium. Ash Zing constructs a methodology of “meta-image” through his performances, paintings, and installations, which unmasks the production mechanism of images by repeating, proliferating, piercing, and even eliminating images. His “speculative painting”, along with those installations and performances of negative power, showing his deep obsession with an internal and recursive conceptual logic, which fluctuates back and forth between these pairs of fundamental metaphysical concepts such as being and nothingness, difference and repetition.
Ash Zing (b.1990) 毕业于⽣物科学专业，肿瘤和病毒的分⼦⽣物学⽅向研究。之后从事过⾃由撰稿⼈，经纪⼈，⾮遗扶贫项⽬主管，汽⻋修理⼯⼈，摄影师，酒店前台。现作为⼀个普通的艺术家⽣活在蒙特利尔和上海。作品被多家机构和个人收藏。
Ash Zing是谁？如同从空中抛掷的阿里阿德涅线团，我们将以这个人格符号作为起点，亦作为线索来寻找心中的答案。本次个展所呈现的作品具有鲜明的认知特性，让我们看到了对再现性和表现性的双重驱逐。其趋于极简、抽象化的作品语言有如犹太教对偶像崇拜的禁止，以“形象的不在场”来暗示在场，来匮乏来召唤使之充实的意向。正如德里达所言，“自画像一开始就是废墟”，凝视自我总是如同面对一个“不可能的总体”。因此，与其试图还原一位年轻艺术家的写实性肖像，不如说正是其作品衍生出的差异性和异质性的力量制造出了一个个匿名的幽灵主体，在观者的互动与想象中得以补全形象。
Ash Zing作品的自我指涉性在他的观念实践中得以照会。“元”这个词缀本身意味着“自我指涉”，无论是“元诗”、“元小说”还是“元绘画”，都指向着对媒介内在机制的溯源。而Ash Zing用他的行为、绘画与装置作品建构了一种有关“元图像”的方法论，通过重 复、增殖、刺穿乃至消灭图像来解蔽图像的生产机制。无论是他的“思辨性绘画”，还是其具有否定性力量的装置和行为作品，他始终深深迷恋于一种内在的、递归的观念逻辑，在虚实、有无的源始性概念之间来回波动。
Solo Exhibitions
个展
2024
Less than you need, More than you want, 768 Gallery, Shanghai ,China
比你需要的少，比你想要的多，768 Gallery，上海，中国
2023
The Relics, Art Box Space, Qingdao, China
遗物计划，黑匣子艺术空间，青岛，中国
2022
Fool and Sisyphus were too late to care for the folds of the earth, otherwise "neither are mountains hard, enduring and unchanging, but soft things"; They could only focus on the infinitely diverging folds of the plane, treading the confluence of motive and purpose into sonic waves that make great successes mundane. Tracing white paper here is art and money! I'd love to make it to the top! Make a name for myself! Make a fortune! In the spotlight! Get carried away! That's how you deserve to be loved! Muss es sein? Es muss sein!
M50 Common Room，Shanghai， China
2021
I, Ash Zing, Simulacra Studio, Beijing, China
我, Ash Zing，拟像空间，北京，中国
2018
Within Our Capabilities, Yell Space, Shanghai, China
量力而为，要空间，上海，中国
2015
A Solo Show In Bathroom, Ash Gallery, Montreal, Canada
卫生间个展，Ash Gallery，蒙特利尔，加拿大
Artist Talk
讲座
Learning from the West and tracing the origins from the East：Discussion on Oriental Concepts in Contemporary Art，Modern Art Museum Shanghai，China
西方取经，东方溯流：当代艺术东方性观念的探讨，艺仓美术馆，上海，中国
3x3x3，Luan Gallery，Beijing，China
3x3x3，Luan Gallery，北京，中国
Group Exhibitions
群展
2024
The nomadism is a displacement of eternal, Entrance Space, Zhengzhou, China
New Youth Experimental Art Biennale，Ceramic Art avenue Art Museum，JingDeZhen, China
Me, My Games, Suns Living Gallery, Beijing, China
Synthetic Living：Image Art In Digital Era, CDCIM, Chengdu, China
2023
Running for corpes —— Return to the game，Eacther Space, Shanghai, China
Offside, Yixing Museum, Jiangsu, China
Eight Disciplines, Entrance Space, Zhengzhou, China
2022
2000 Segni Di Pace，Aohu Museum, Shenzhen, China