Miao (Andie) Zhang’s BFA thesis exhibition was originally scheduled from April 13–17 in the Oliver Art Center on CCA’s Oakland campus. Due to the Bay Area’s COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, we are sharing work by Andie and other graduating students on CCA’s website and social media channels. 

Artwork by Miao (Andie) Zhang will be featured on CCA's official social media channels, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, starting April 25 at 9am PDT.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Ksana
Fragments of sunlight falling through the gap between the leaves.
A newborn butterfly softly vibrating its wings within the chrysalis.
Finally,
It struggling out a tiny crack and seeing the first beam of light from a long while.
That string of light is as thin as a spider’s silk.
Butterfly struggling its wings harder,
Trying to grip onto that shining silk.
Sprinkle of soft green on the twisted wistaria vine.
Calyxes are gently holding those newly grown pale purple petals.
Protecting and loving the fragile petals like the chrysalis swaddling the young butterfly.
The phase of flowers are short.
Maybe the phase of that young butterfly will be longer.
On the field,
There are sunflowers blooming.
They are gazing at the sun forever.
Stretching their stems to get closer to that glory.
Unconsciously,
The butterfly is enjoying the tired and painful struggling.
It's a little bit nostalgic for its chrysalis, which had sheltered it for such a long time.
Petals falling into the dirt,
Glory burning the ashes out,
Bubbles blasting in the stream,
The sound of flapping fades away into a softly breeze
Somebody sitting quietly not far away，
Holding paint and brushes,
Tried to preserve all of this into that wooden frame.

BIO

Andie Zhang was born in China and she decided to became a Jeweler and Metal Artist after studying in California College of the Arts in the United States. Andie’s works focus on hand fabrication on metal sculptures that invoke narratives. She applied her hollowware skills on copper and silver to create three dimensional figurative shapes. Lots of her works are inspired by fantasy stories and the idea of metamorphosis. She uses butterflies and pupa as ornaments to introduce the transformation process in a narrative. In her recent work, she is developing the idea of "ksana." Ksana is a term that comes from Buddhism that means "only last for a moment." The philosophy of ksana was first mentioned by a Chinese writer Ziqing Zhu. Despite the past and the future, only focusing on the present. Andie resonates with the concept of ksana and wants to make works that represent the idea.

Right: Miao (Andie) Zhang, The Sun, 2020.

To view more work by Miao (Andie) Zhang, follow @andieraven on Instagram.