{"id":8624,"date":"2026-10-05T09:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=8624"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T16:34:00","slug":"through-fictional-self-portraits-tang-shuo-visualizes-an-ancestral-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=8624","title":{"rendered":"Through Fictional Self-Portraits, Tang Shuo Visualizes an Ancestral Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Through<\/p>\n

As a child in Dashishan Village in southern China, Tang Shuo<\/a> was afraid of snakes. He and several generations of the Tang family lived together in a small community and farmed the land, tending to crops and sheep and encountering the occasional reptile. In a vivid new painting on linen, the artist confronts this adolescent fear as he envisions himself grasping a sleek, black serpent, its recently shed skin lying beneath them.<\/p>\n

Long interested in his ancestry<\/a> and familial connection to the land, Tang once again journeys to his home territory for Borrowed History<\/em>, his first solo exhibition in New York. This body of work extends the artist\u2019s approach to questioning how our heritage informs our understanding of who we are and how we got here. Working from photographs of himself, Tang renders his likeness in a variety of positions he envisions his kin having occupied. There\u2019s \u201cThe Migrant\u201d carrying a small sack slung over his back, for example, and \u201cThe Settler\u201d hoisting a tree trunk with tools and bones scattered in the background. <\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cThe Migrant\u201d (2026), oil on linen, 100 x 80 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tinged with magical realism<\/a>\u2014Tang cites Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez\u2019s One Hundred Years of Solitude<\/em> as an influence\u2014the paintings reach backward to imagine the lives of the artist\u2019s ancestors. Lush forests and candy-colored clouds envelop the scenes as a way to connect eras and generations. Nature and the terrain occupied, the artist suggests, is the throughline that tethers him to those who came before.<\/p>\n

Although the specific scenes are fictional, Tang also considers his practice to be one of archiving \u201ca world that is disappearing,\u201d a statement says. \u201cWhen he was a child, more than two hundred people lived in Dashishan; today, only a dozen or so remain. He continues to document the inhabitants and stories of the village and will eventually publish a book recording its history, which he describes as his \u2018own bible.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Borrowed History<\/em> is on view from October 8 to November 7 at Plato Gallery<\/a>. Explore more of Tang\u2019s works on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cThe Settler\u201d (2026), oil on linen, 100 x 80 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cThe Tree Hollow I\u201d (2026), oil on linen, 150 x 120 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cWaiting\u201d (2026), oil on linen, 61 x 50.5 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cVessel\u201d (2026), oil on linen, 70 x 50 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Through Fictional Self-Portraits, Tang Shuo Visualizes an Ancestral Archive<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a child in Dashishan Village in southern China, Tang Shuo was afraid of snakes. He and several generations of the Tang family lived together in a small community and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}