Xintong Zhang

Xintong Zhang is a London-based artist whose practice incorporates etching, stone lithography, moving image and installation. She graduated from Sun Yat-Sen University in Anthropology in 2019 before she came to study her MA in Print at Royal College of Art. Due to her research background, Xintong uses an anthropological methodology in her art practice to document the dialogue between humans and plants. Xintong’s work is focused on investigating the value of weeds in urban landscapes as a metaphor for resistance to the hierarchical value system in human society. She exposes their fragility and marginalised property by running fresh plants directly under the printing press, to make imprints on top of etched images. Her works aims to bring attention to the beauty of those whose existence is isolated or marginalised and raises discussions on our living circumstances, identity and sense of belonging. Xintong enjoys the process of printmaking. It has led her to experiment with photoetching, mono-printing and stone lithography. She has found her own way to visualise wild plants in the city landscapes. Using her dual histories as an artist and anthropologist Xintong builds on her fieldwork, studying weeds in Yunnan, China in 2017. As the base of all her works, fieldwork allows her to share a new vision of the value of the overlooked in an urban environment.

The Spring I’ve Never Seen

by Xintong Zhang.

Aquatint on 300gsm paper,

31 x 30 cm,

Edition of 5,

2020.