About this artwork
Decomposed Ritual Symbols IV is the fourth piece of Zhang Zhan's Decomposed Ritual Symbols collection. The collection includes a series of videos that are constantly decomposing and recomposing two iconic Chinese ritual ornament designs, 囍 (shuāngxǐ, double happiness, ligature, featured in this piece) and 奠 (diàn, libation), that are prominently seen in Chinese wedding and death ceremonies. By applying kinetic typography generated by custom software running in real-time, the artist explores dynamic meanings of the ritual symbols while disclosing the tension underlying such social conventions.
Decomposed Ritual Symbols