Tang Han works with film, video, installation, and painting, drawing from historical materials to address contemporary questions about the intersections of ecology, feminism, and consumer culture. Commissioned for the 14th Mercosul Biennial, the artist presents two works inspired by medicinal plants: the installation Rhizoming Wind: Forecasting and the vinyl adhesive piece Ginkgo and Other Times.
Used in Chinese medicine, Gastrodia elata is known for treating so-called “wind diseases”, related to the nervous system, such as strokes and migraines. Meanwhile, the vinyl adhesive work draws from Ginkgo biloba, considered a living fossil, as it has existed for over two hundred million years. The piece is linked to the film of the same name, which the artist produced in 2023, exploring ecological ethics in writing about nature and ancient Chinese folktales. Inspired by botanical science fiction, Taoism, and cutting-edge technology, Tang reveals connections that often go unnoticed by our most fundamental senses in the composition of life and its cycles of transformation.
Taís Cardoso
Tang Han (China, 1989) is a visual artist and filmmaker who graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and holds a master’s degree from the Berlin University of Arts. Her videos, films, installations, and texts are based on her experience of cultural collision, starting from elements or issues that arise from what we take for granted or ignore in everyday life. The artist places them in new perspectives by investigating archives and appropriating images from pop culture and consumerism. Her work has been exhibited at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the Kunsthaus Dresden, the HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, and the Image Forum Festival in Japan, where she received an award. She lives in Berlin, Germany.
