Elemental, 2023

Earth Elemental, Water Elemental, Wood Elemental, Metal Elemental, Fire Elemental
Archival Inkjet Print
40 x 50”
20 x 25”

Elemental is a series of photographs, sculptures, and installations that examines simulated nature in interior spaces and its intersection with contemporary and historical references to East Asian philosophy, design, and place. The series continues Zhang's exploration of how how replicas, imitations, and cultural symbols transform into visual languages unique to diasporic communities.

As urbanization expands and living spaces shrink, representations of nature increasingly appear in domestic environments, reflecting a desire for connection, comfort, and stability. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this longing was evident in the popularity of earth tones and shades of blue and green, colours associated with healing, tranquility, and the natural world. Similarly, as migration distances communities from their ancestral homelands, domestic spaces become sites where cultural memory is preserved and reimagined. Elemental explores how images, objects, and commercialized depictions of distant places shape understandings of home, and how copies of the real accumulate meaning and become truths in their own right.

The series comprises five photographs depicting the Chinese wuxing elements—earth, water, wood, metal, and fire—through arrangements of household objects and items found in Zhang's neighbourhood after moving there during the pandemic. These works reflect an effort to become acquainted with a new environment while engaging feng shui as a practice of intention, adaptation, and agency.

This project was made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Superframe Framing Fund, and the Ontario Arts Council’s Career Catalyst Grant.
Installation photos by Darren Rigo.