In Passing Miranda Fengyuan Zhang

Overview
In Passing, Miranda Fengyuan Zhang
Mendes Wood DM São Paulo is pleased to present the Shanghai-born and New York-based artist Miranda Fengyuan Zhang’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition features a group of Zhang’s recently completed hand woven paintings. Zhang’s textile works explore the idea of abstract landscape in relation to the memories. The blurry contours and the subtle palette of the works in the show are encapsulated in the title in passing, which evoke Zhang’s sensibility towards the state of transience.

The show is inspired by Zhang’s road trip to the deserted west Texas. The vast landscape along the journey is primarily observed through a windshield. The endless horizon, the immense light and the lack of human traces, prompt Zhang to contemplate the passing of time. At first glance, these moments of “in passing” seemed so trivial compared to their destinations, however in recollection, those glimpses captured on the road resonate deeply.

Unlike paintings or drawings, weaving retains intrinsic material precision, in which the warp and weft have to be strategically arranged so that the even distribution of tension among the tread achieves equilibrium. The methodology of weaving offers both restraints and opportunities. The orderly discipline activates Zhang’s consciousness where she is constantly reminded that mistakes are forbidden, and in return provides a degree of coherence and clarity which ultimately liberates the process of creation. Dissecting the retinal reception of those ephemeral moments, Zhang aspires to capture lights, the medium in which physical objects are perceived as well as an agency for abstraction.

The concept of in passing also touches upon Zhang’s life at large. She is constantly in a state of transience, from Shanghai to New York, and multiple places in between. The tensioned thread in her works, always held between intersections, exemplifies the significance of the in-between state that she experiences and longs to translate.  
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