Shiyu Zhang

This work outlines the body with vivid colours and intersecting lines, yet refuses to confine it within symbols intended for consumption. Flowing areas of colour and transparent overlays render the figure both revealed and concealed. The body becomes an “unstable presence,” constantly emerging and dissolving, questioning the desire and boundaries of viewing. I regard my own body as a site where perception and culture converge. It carries personal experiences and memories, while also being embedded within broader social structures and visual traditions. In this process, nudity is not the end point of self-exposure but a way of reclaiming the power of discourse. It allows the body to step away from established aesthetic standards and the constraints of gendered gazes, returning it to the complexity and uncertainty of the subject itself. It is precisely this complexity that I seek. Rather than attempting to reproduce an idealised image, I allow flaws, fractures, and a sense of incompletion to grow within the picture. They are folds of memory, fractures of emotion, and traces left by cultural forces upon the body. The work is therefore not merely a visual representation but an act of self-archaeology, uncovering the layered psychological and cultural landscapes behind the body through the collision of colour and line.

This series originates from my direct sensory experience of Buddhist murals, sculptures, and architectural spaces. The solemn faces, ancient postures, and dense textures still carry the symbolic weight of religion, yet over time they reveal a material fragility. Faded pigments, weathered stone surfaces, and blurred details speak not of the disappearance of faith itself, but of a transformation within the human spiritual core. Religion still exists, and temples still stand, yet the spiritual needs of contemporary people are no longer entirely rooted in these traditions. Technology, consumerism, and new cultural contexts have reshaped the relationship between people and the sacred, gradually pushing incense burning, temple visits, and religious rituals out of most daily lives. In my view, this shift is not simply a loss of belief but a migration of spiritual orientation, moving from transcendental reliance toward more individualised and immediate emotions and experiences. In my creative process, I combine the free composition of collage, the visual tension of abstract art, and the immediacy of digital painting. Working through a process of immediate response, I transform what I see and feel on site, or in the lingering warmth of memory, into images where colour, line, and form directly carry the spiritual perception of that moment. The black-and-white tonality removes the distractions of decorative colour, allowing figurative Buddhist imagery and abstract textures to permeate one another, presenting both the material qualities of religious art and the contemporary sense of fluidity and uncertainty in spiritual orientation. I hope that viewers can sense in these works both the historical depth of Buddhist art and the ongoing evolution of self-positioning within the spiritual realm in contemporary life. This is a dialogue between time and the human heart, rather than a narrative about faith alone.

This series originates from my direct sensory experience of Buddhist murals, sculptures, and architectural spaces. The solemn faces, ancient postures, and dense textures still carry the symbolic weight of religion, yet over time they reveal a material fragility. Faded pigments, weathered stone surfaces, and blurred details speak not of the disappearance of faith itself, but of a transformation within the human spiritual core. Religion still exists, and temples still stand, yet the spiritual needs of contemporary people are no longer entirely rooted in these traditions. Technology, consumerism, and new cultural contexts have reshaped the relationship between people and the sacred, gradually pushing incense burning, temple visits, and religious rituals out of most daily lives. In my view, this shift is not simply a loss of belief but a migration of spiritual orientation, moving from transcendental reliance toward more individualised and immediate emotions and experiences. In my creative process, I combine the free composition of collage, the visual tension of abstract art, and the immediacy of digital painting. Working through a process of immediate response, I transform what I see and feel on site, or in the lingering warmth of memory, into images where colour, line, and form directly carry the spiritual perception of that moment. The black-and-white tonality removes the distractions of decorative colour, allowing figurative Buddhist imagery and abstract textures to permeate one another, presenting both the material qualities of religious art and the contemporary sense of fluidity and uncertainty in spiritual orientation. I hope that viewers can sense in these works both the historical depth of Buddhist art and the ongoing evolution of self-positioning within the spiritual realm in contemporary life. This is a dialogue between time and the human heart, rather than a narrative about faith alone.

This series originates from my direct sensory experience of Buddhist murals, sculptures, and architectural spaces. The solemn faces, ancient postures, and dense textures still carry the symbolic weight of religion, yet over time they reveal a material fragility. Faded pigments, weathered stone surfaces, and blurred details speak not of the disappearance of faith itself, but of a transformation within the human spiritual core. Religion still exists, and temples still stand, yet the spiritual needs of contemporary people are no longer entirely rooted in these traditions. Technology, consumerism, and new cultural contexts have reshaped the relationship between people and the sacred, gradually pushing incense burning, temple visits, and religious rituals out of most daily lives. In my view, this shift is not simply a loss of belief but a migration of spiritual orientation, moving from transcendental reliance toward more individualised and immediate emotions and experiences. In my creative process, I combine the free composition of collage, the visual tension of abstract art, and the immediacy of digital painting. Working through a process of immediate response, I transform what I see and feel on site, or in the lingering warmth of memory, into images where colour, line, and form directly carry the spiritual perception of that moment. The black-and-white tonality removes the distractions of decorative colour, allowing figurative Buddhist imagery and abstract textures to permeate one another, presenting both the material qualities of religious art and the contemporary sense of fluidity and uncertainty in spiritual orientation. I hope that viewers can sense in these works both the historical depth of Buddhist art and the ongoing evolution of self-positioning within the spiritual realm in contemporary life. This is a dialogue between time and the human heart, rather than a narrative about faith alone.

This series originates from my direct sensory experience of Buddhist murals, sculptures, and architectural spaces. The solemn faces, ancient postures, and dense textures still carry the symbolic weight of religion, yet over time they reveal a material fragility. Faded pigments, weathered stone surfaces, and blurred details speak not of the disappearance of faith itself, but of a transformation within the human spiritual core. Religion still exists, and temples still stand, yet the spiritual needs of contemporary people are no longer entirely rooted in these traditions. Technology, consumerism, and new cultural contexts have reshaped the relationship between people and the sacred, gradually pushing incense burning, temple visits, and religious rituals out of most daily lives. In my view, this shift is not simply a loss of belief but a migration of spiritual orientation, moving from transcendental reliance toward more individualised and immediate emotions and experiences. In my creative process, I combine the free composition of collage, the visual tension of abstract art, and the immediacy of digital painting. Working through a process of immediate response, I transform what I see and feel on site, or in the lingering warmth of memory, into images where colour, line, and form directly carry the spiritual perception of that moment. The black-and-white tonality removes the distractions of decorative colour, allowing figurative Buddhist imagery and abstract textures to permeate one another, presenting both the material qualities of religious art and the contemporary sense of fluidity and uncertainty in spiritual orientation. I hope that viewers can sense in these works both the historical depth of Buddhist art and the ongoing evolution of self-positioning within the spiritual realm in contemporary life. This is a dialogue between time and the human heart, rather than a narrative about faith alone.