My New York

Zhang Huan moved from Beijing to New York in the late 1990s. In 2002 the Whitney Museum of American Art commissioned a public performance in his new home. He sketched out several options before he and the museum settled on the version documented in this photograph: he walked through New York wearing a suit of meat and released doves into the city. On the bench you will find photocopies of some of Zhang’s initial drawings and source material for this project.

Zhang has noted that "something may appear to be formidable, but I will question whether or not it truly is so powerful. Sometimes such things may be extremely fragile, like body builders who take drugs and push themselves beyond the limits of their training on a long term basis, until their heart cannot possibly bear such enormous stress. . . . I interpret my New York through concerns of identity, through the Buddhist tradition of setting live animals free (to accumulate grace), and through man's animal nature and machinelike qualities."