Nature and the solitary self


Nature possesses a creative force that gives it life. As does man, who is a part of nature. Our attempts to humanize this creative force draw us into the spiritual realm and are themselves driven by the necessity, undiminished through the ages, to put a human face on the invisible. "Spiritual" therefore becomes a synonym for "transcendent." Just as in the past, we evoke the spiritual today to both bridge and illuminate the gap between heart and mind. Now that the image of God has lost its defining characteristic as the supreme entity who determines what is good and what is evil, this spiritual space is no longer found in religious tenets but rather in a faith which turns to the natural world.

The spirituality of the Chinese artist Zhang Huan is inspired by the human body. Smeared with honey and fish oil—two natural substances—Huan sat for an hour in a public bathroom, at the mercy of the flies that quickly covered his entire body…




Simona Vendrame
(Translation by Jacqueline Smith)