Konstnären Zhang Huan var en av de första performanceartisterna i Kina. Under en installation i New York visade han hur man snabbt kan bli lika grov som Mr Olympia-deltagarna.
Emaho Magazine: Zhang Huan: The Man with Three Legs
– In New York, I saw many male body-builders who spend hours to train themselves, sometimes even beyond what their bodies could take. They use all kinds of vitamins and supplements in order to keep up their strength, but many times they go beyond the limit of their heart.
– My consultant designed a beef-costume for me. Five tailors spent an entire day and a whole night to sew beef piece by piece onto a diving suit. The beef-costume is very heavy, maybe around fifty kilograms. I had a hard time walking because of its weight.
ArtAsiaPacific: Standing on the shoulders of Giants – Zhang Huan
In a reference to the US bodybuilding culture, he struggled under the weight of his raw musculature in a false display of strength that spoke to the geopolitical and psychological anxieties of the time.
