Zhang Yu, Archived and Shredded Fingerprints, 2014
Shredded paper encased in acrylic box
40 × 30 × 10 cm
Condition: Very good
Artwork located in Taichung, Taiwan.
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Zhang Yu (Taiwanese, b. 1959), styled Yuren and known by the pseudonym Shiyu, is a freelance artist and independent curator born in 1959 in Tianjin. He currently lives and works in Beijing and is recognized as a leading figure in China's experimental ink art movement. His signature work, Fingerprints, is a performative narrative that captures process and time through traces left on paper.
Deeply influenced by Buddhist philosophy, Zhang regards his creative process as a form of spiritual cultivation. His abstract practice emphasizes the act of creation as an expression of philosophical and spiritual thought. Throughout his career, he has continuously pushed the boundaries of artistic language, seeking to return to simplicity and originality. In early works such as the Aura series, he used only Xuan paper and monochrome ink. Starting in the early 1990s, his Fingerprints series took this further by replacing brushes with his fingers and limiting his palette to red, black, and white. While finger painting has long existed on the margins of art history, Zhang chose this unorthodox method to pioneer a new path for contemporary ink art.
In the Fingerprints series, Zhang uses his right index finger to press repeated marks onto Xuan paper in a meditative, ritualistic process, leaving thousands of overlapping impressions. These fingerprints, originally a symbol of personal identity, are transformed into aesthetic and infinite symbols. Exploiting the malleability of Xuan paper, Zhang reshapes its surface and structure through the pressure of his finger, leaving behind relief-like traces that document the act of painting itself.
In Sealing the Shredded Fingerprints, Zhang presents a form of "expanded installation" by deconstructing and sealing away the Fingerprints, making a seemingly resolute gesture of farewell to them. Around the same time, he also created a series of “performance-installation” works, further expanding his practice into new conceptual territory.
(Photographed in April 2025)