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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong, © Zhang Peili
Zhang Peili 張培力
X? No. 4 X？ 第四號
1987
This oil painting is a realistic depiction of a pair of light brown gloves against a dark background. The palm of the glove on the left faces down, and the wrist area is folded. On the right, the palm of the glove faces up, and the cuff is folded down. The gloves are limp, and their arrangement gives the sense that they were just removed from someone’s hands. The work is one of a series of oil paintings Zhang Peili made in 1986 and 1987 that feature gloves and that were deliberately constructed without any overarching theme or narrative. For Zhang, the glove is a utilitarian object open to a range of interpretations, from protection to disease. The absence of hands in the painting suggests lifelessness and disconnection. Depicting the gloves in muted colours also removes any association with emotion and individual expression, characteristic of works by artists of the Pond Society—a group formed in Hangzhou in the late 1980s, of which Zhang was a member. The group responded to the trend of self-expression by creating works that emphasise sterility and distance. Beginning in the 1990s, Zhang extended his conceptual approach to video works.
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