Zhang Huan (B.1965), Ass Head N°. 1. Photo Sotheby's

signed and dated 2007 on the reverse; mixed media and incense ash; 228 by 227 by 244cm. 89 3/4 by 89 1/4 by 96in. Estimate 150,000-200,000 GBP

PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the artist in 2007

EXHIBITED: London, The Saatchi Gallery, The Revolution Continues: New Art From China, 2008-09, pp. 68-9 and 71, illustrated in colour
Lille, Tripostal, La Route De La Soie / The Silk Road , 2010- 11

LITERATURE: Uta Grosenick and Caspar H. Schubbe, China Art Book, Cologne 2007, p. 597, illustrated in colour
Edward Booth-Clibborn, Ed., The History of the Saatchi Gallery, London 2011, p. 717, illustrated in colour

NOTE: Ash Head No. 1 is the first in an important series of sculptures made by Zhang Huan in 2007. Ranging in scale from table top sculptures to monumental gallery installations, in these works Zhang Huan incorporated incense ash which he collected from Shanghai temples in a laboriously involved process of weekly gathering and sorting, isolating the vestiges into the indexical categories of texture and pigmentation so that he can 'paint' his images. This medium has multiple significations: it is the actual substance of prayers, the dust of death and rebirth, the allegorical weight of spirits. Emitting an overwhelming scent throughout the gallery space, these sculptures recycle the hopes and wishes of others, sharing a cathartic ambience of cleansing and purity.

In Ash Head No 1, burnt incense is used to cover a monolithic head, its powdery, friable texture duplicitously posing as stone, resembling the head of the 8th Century Giant Buddha carved from the cliff face in Leshan, Sichuan province. For centuries throughout China, such Buddhas were the revered religious symbols idolised by the masses, until Mao cast them as obsolete effigies to be levelled by the Cultural Revolution. In Ash Head No 1, therefore, the totem stands defiantly as a recognisable self-portrait of the artist, an antediluvian deity, and a reference to the iconoclastic policies of the Cultural Revolution. Embedded within the surface, charred incense sticks replicate the minute details of hair, eyelashes and whiskers, poking from the crumbling skin with haunting suggestions of decomposition and obsolescence. Set on a wheeled support – be it plinth, altar or trolley - its strange death-head mysticism is posed with the prescience of an accursed museum relic, no longer in the safe confines of storage.

Sotheby's, Contemporary Art Evening Auction, London | 15 Feb 2012 www.sothebys.com