Chen Zehn in San Gimignano

Chen Zhen knew time was limited when, through the 1990s, he made the sculpture now comprising the major exhibition on view at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano. The Chinese artist was suffering from a rare 
form of anaemia. It would claim his life in 2000 at the age of 45.This personal history partly accounts for references to healing in work that is often monumental in scale. In search of recovery Zhen, the son of doctors, had lived with Tibetan monks and studied Chinese philosophy. Indeed, the exhibition includes his model for a public garden where opposing Chinese and Western views of medicine are fused. Landscape forms in glass and alabaster resemble human organs and bring together fixed and ever-changing remedies as if to release new energy into treating the body. The powerful resonance of this artist’s production, however, goes far beyond Zhen’s own situation. At the heart of these restless sculptures is the quest for harmony that poses one question: can different beliefs ever peacefully co-exist? In Un Village sans frontières he framed one of numerous replies. Simple, miniature houses constructed with coloured candles occupy the seat of scores of small children’s chairs (a selection of which appear in San Gimignano). Metaphors abound in Zhen’s choice of materials; each typically holds a clue to broader interpretations. So candles stand for individual lives that collect into communities while chairs suggest freedom to move and settle, in this case a vision entrusted to future generations. In another version, tiny wax shelters stand on tall, glass-topped tables with spindly legs that forcefully imply the aspiration’s fragility. The artist himself embodied this hope. Critical of the regime in China (where, in spite of gradual liberalisation, making art was viewed as politically subversive) he moved to Europe in 1986 and worked in France. Acutely aware of bridging attitudes and traditions, of being in exile and absorbing new influences, Zhen looked for ways to express this dislocation, what he called “transexpérience”. His solution helps explain the important place he occupies in art’s recent history. Zhen relied on items familiar in everyday life to convey his idea of universal harmony. Furniture, newspapers, glass, typewriters, candles, brooms proliferate in installations that take hold of the space they share with the visitor. His sculptures are simultaneously poetic and physically intimidating. Visually impressive and tactile, they appeal strongly to other senses, like hearing and smell. Complicated structures resemble obsolete machines yet the desire to explore them for concealed power to communicate is irresistible.Stimulating to eye and mind, Zhen’s work reinvigorated discarded and overlooked materials. Their new uses prompt his audience to think afresh about what art can achieve. A spiritual dimension also exists as purification and rebirth feature as compelling themes throughout his career. More than once in this show, the grey remnants of burned newspapers fill huge aquarium-like containers, as if ashes will fertilise the ground with cleansed memories of past events. Time – past, present and future; urgent and slow – emerges as a potent force for change.Chen Zhen: Les pas silencieuxUntil January 28, 2012; Galleria Continua, Via del Castello 11, San Gimignano; www.galleriacontinua.com; free admission; open 2pm to 7pm from Tuesday to Saturday.