Sapphire (Shiyu) Zhang

Sapphire (Shiyu) Zhang is an analogue digital artist and PhD student at University of Wales Trinity Saint David, studying art and design. She describes her works as emerging “through repeated adjustment, where intuition and control continuously reshape each other. In this way, the technical process is inseparable from the conceptual one: layering becomes a way to think through memory, emotion, and the unstable structure of the self”.

The digital art of Sapphire Zhang are actually digitized collages of images she collects, such as self-portraits, nudes, statues, and inanimate objects. These iconographic symbols then become distorted amidst a wash of grainy pixelization or blurs. In the black and white works, there is often an appearance similar to analogue format photography or even paper from Xerox copy machines. In these digital works, Sapphire uses emotional sensory experiences to express feminine sensibilities, her emotional connection to certain imagery. This conceptual conveyance and expression is an institutional and cultural critique on the stigma of women and their emotional impulses. In essence, the artist uses emotion as a strength and source of deeper awareness, rather than a perceived weakness. 

In works depicting statues and ambiguous imagery, the distortions are so great to the point the viewer will often have to be forced to investigate the compositions. As if a great spotlight had descended on an interior or open street amidst the wash of a storm, these mysterious works offer just hints of connotations. There remains a hint of reflection, as vivid distortions seem to blur the lines of works into grainy sfumato textures. In the color compositions, female figures and portraits become evident amidst a wash of blurs and neon colors, along a glow reminiscent of city lights or a luminous arcade of splendor and glory. Upon inspection of these works, there seems to be a deeper mindfulness as she freezes moments in time to be reflected on in both conceptual interpretation and deep aesthetics. Beyond expression, these works serve as a healing process from trauma as the artist incorporates elements of art therapy into the art. Through vivid sensory experiences, Sapphire creates a connection to the audience through communicative imagery. These works are meant to be convey and inspire a deeper conversation on the purpose of image-making in regard to using objects and figures as symbols of emotional reaction and expression. 

Sapphire in White (pictured above) is a self-portrait depicted amidst a wash of blurs and neon tones as if the artist were illuminated with flashing enchanted lights. The mystical qualities in the image appears like a distortion of exploration and expression. Her identity becomes fused with the discovery of herself amidst a digitized sfumato of apparitional qualities which seem to haunt the audience while offering mystery in being illuminated with hallucinogenic lights. 

In analysis, Sapphire Zhang’s contributions to contemporary art come through avenues of forming of both expression and conceptual communication in the guise of interpretations of her surroundings. She uses her sensibilities and observational nature to bridge connections between our experiences, time, space, and identity. In these mysterious, lucid works, we will find a consistent ambiguity further defined by grains and hints of imagery through manipulated distortion and a brilliant wash of contrast as well as saturation. She offers visual clues and encourages the viewer to investigate the compositions for deeper reflection not only on the purpose of image-making, but also towards our perceived environments.