During the modernist era of "cleanliness as a virtue," the bathroom became a symbol of hygiene consciousness, with its pursuit of sanitation even surpassing its functional purpose. Entering through the main door of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1929), a freestanding white sink appears prominently in the foyer, suggesting that the architect must have regarded it as an elegant sculpture. Much like the holy water stoup placed at the entrance of a church, it evokes a sense of introspection into one's own impurities, inspiring humility and reverence. In fact, white sinks appeared in various rooms of modernist buildings—bedrooms, studies, living rooms, galleries—and were not confined to bathrooms alone. For instance, in the Villa Tugendhat (1929) designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a white sink encased in glass for waterproof protection was placed in a corner of the wardrobe in the governess's room. The artwork contains two references to the moon goddess—one explicit and one implicit. The explicit reference is the goddess Luna inscribed on the soap, while the implicit one lies within the mirror. The mirror reflects images of extinct animals, with a black crescent moon suspended at its center. Thus, the mirror symbolizes Hecate, the moon goddess associated with the underworld and the night.
ZHANG Chong, born in Zhejiang in 1988. Graduated with a master’s degree and the title of Professor Jochen Breme’s Meisterschüler from the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences, Germany, in 2018. Now works and lives in Shanghai. His works have been exhibited in the Museum Kunstpalast in Dusseldorf, in the art fair contemporary art ruhr (C.A.R.), and other art spaces in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Germany, the Netherlands and etc. His work involves the combination of various materials, exploring not only the diverse possibilities of common materials but also integrating history, poetry, or documentary sources to explore issues related to contemporary social life and natural ecology.
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