Zhang Jianhua's Coal Mine Workers

In Beijing, one cannot miss going to Great Wall of China, The Tian An Men Square, the forbidden city, the summer palace. In the other part of Beijing, the little known area in which Chinese Contemporary Art thrive and a must to visit for art lovers is the 798 factory. Many post cultural revolution Chinese artists host their art works there. However, even though so, many artists reknown internationally still remain ambigous to the locals. Such is the case for Zhang Jianhua, whose sculpture works are disturbing and profound, especially those he made: life size sculptures of Chinese coal miners

His life works depicts depict miners sitting on the ground in their black rubber boots wearing looks of sheer fatigue. Some stare blankly into the distance or prop up their heads with both hands, their faces fixed in nameless agony. Although seeing it, one might not feel any connection to it without before hand understanding the social issues in China, in which coal miners die in the thousand annually due to the hazardous working environment and poor safety issues. Little do the locals look upon the sculptures with interests, and silently, it also symbolizes the problems coal miners face in modern China, making them silent victims to disasters little known to people. Or simply, not many care about them.

The works of Zhang, now in his mid thirties, received many critical praises from the art industry. However, locally, no Chinese museum or established gallery is willing to take in his display of the coal miners entirety, even though he insists, due to the controversy and troubles it might bring from the local authorities. This can be seen clearly when his works was exhibited in 798 factory during April this year, but demanded by the censors to remove the six dead coal mine workers out of the show. They just do not wish to see it somehow.

If you look at it in a picture most Chinese in this era want to depict a progressive China, full of smiles and great improvements. No one like to look at the ugly side being depicted. Everything is good and merry, the air is tinged and filled with love songs. There is nothing "wrong" with China. There is no bubble reality at all.

Officially, 4,794 coal miners died in work-related accidents in China last year - more than 13 every day, on average, though many believe the official figures understate the real toll. But Zhang's temerity in representing the victims has won his work what might be called a soft ban.

And Zhang is not aiming to criticize the authorities. He would just like to see that from his works, he can change and affect the society, gaining awareness from the public, in which changes can happen to make his belove country more open and transparents about making changes possible, not with empty promises and propaganda. Everyone should know what is going on in the country. The thing is, a large majority do know, but they choose to leap into a safety zone of "i fuck care as long nothing disturb me" attitude.

Personally, I think people outside of China are more interested with the Chinese Contemporary Artists than the locals. If these artists did not gain International attention when they exhibited their works overseas, pressures forced upon China internationally, a lucrative art market in which China wants to put his paws upon, and also because of the WTO few years back, the voice of the artists locally will still remain unclear throughout the country.

more about the artist, extract

The artist's first taste of successful shock realism came with another series of sculptures four years ago in which he depicted the lives of peasants from his native Henan Province. The 12 figures in that series included an elderly woman sitting alone, threadbare migrant workers and rural schoolteachers.

The work drew critical praise when it was introduced at a gallery in Beijing. But when the show began touring other venues in the capital that year, displayed on the grounds of two middle-class housing developments and at China Agricultural University, it drew strong protests, with residents and students attacking it as vulgar, striking the artist and knocking over some of the figures.

The university exhibition had to be canceled after only two hours.

"These were beggars," said one commentator in a school newspaper. "It's sick." Another complained that "rural areas have progress, too, why not show that?"

Zhang's choice of topics is not the only thing that sets him apart from many contemporaries. He said that to prepare for his miner series, he made numerous trips to the coal country in Shanxi and Henan provinces, living with miners for weeks at a time, soaking up their hard-knocks culture while simultaneously observing the lives of the illegal mine owners, with their flashy, sudden wealth.

The artist grew particularly animated as he described the scenes of lavish weddings organized for the daughters of coal mine owners in Datong, one of China's most famous mining towns, of motorcades of stretched Cadillacs and Hummers and Mercedes-Benzes, festively honking their horns. "This is the kind of ostentation they want," he said. "Yet underneath the wheels are piles of white bones and pools of fresh blood."

For his next project, clearly another effort at unveiling a ubiquitous but officially invisible social problem, Zhang said he planned to portray the country's large numbers of prostitutes. "Not the prostitutes of the rich, but the ordinary, working-class prostitutes, who live in very difficult conditions."