Experience – Han Dynasty Horse by Xu Zhen
Horse Bronze Sculpture
For Hennessy’s Chinese New Year limited edition celebrating the Year of the Horse, Chinese artist Xu Zhen was commissioned to develop an artwork, with curatorial direction by Somexing Artistic.
Drawing inspiration from a Han Dynasty Horse sculpture deeply embedded in Chinese cultural memory, the commission brings together cultural heritage and contemporary artistic thinking, transforming a traditional symbol into a space of interpretation. It extends Xu Zhen’s Experience series, launched in 2019, in which historical icons are reexamined through new formal strategies. Through this approach, Xu Zhen challenges established forms and questions how meaning is constructed, turning a traditional symbol into a site of transformation. Xu Zhen distills the horse to its essential form, hollowing out the figure while preserving its immediate recognizability.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Experience - Han Dynasty Horse
Xu Zhen distills the horse to its essential form, hollowing out the figure while preserving its immediate recognizability. The figure appears hollowed out, reduced to its essential form, yet remains instantly recognizable. This deliberate emptiness is not an absence. Instead, it gives to the viewer a space for imagination, freedom of interpretation and ongoing potential.
Through this approach, Xu Zhen turns the horse into an open structure rather than a fixed image. Meaning is no longer imposed; it is completed by the viewer. The work moves beyond representation to become a narrative object, both minimal and powerful, shaped by abstraction, memory, and cultural resonance.
To develop the work, Xu Zhen first created a mold based on the original sculpture that inspired him. The mold was produced in multiple fragments, each element was carefully assembled to reconstruct the form, and the piece was then cast in bronze. A meticulous patina process followed, designed to evoke the terracotta surface of horses from the Han period.
Inspired by the energy of the Chinese New Year, the horse embodies strength, freedom, movement, and success. The color red reinforces this symbolism, evoking the passion and festivity of the Lunar New Year while echoing Hennessy’s visual identity.
By combining digital aesthetics with historical references, Xu Zhen creates a work that feels both familiar and unexpected. The viewer recognizes the form, yet is invited to reinterpret it.
Technique
Bronze, paint, mineral pigments
Format
321(L) × 80(W) × 200(H) cm
Project
Creative process
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Xu Zhen
Multidisciplinary artist Xu Zhen® is considered an iconic figure in Chinese contemporary art. He received the Best Artist prize at the Chinese Contemporary Art Award in 2004. Working across installation, video, painting, performance, and moving image, his practice merges conceptual rigor with pop strategies, shaping a distinctive visual language. His practice offers a strong framework for brand collaborations rooted in cultural relevance, image circulation, and contemporary narratives.
He first gained attention through behavioral and cultural experiments in performance and video. Blending cultural symbols with contemporary forms, Xu Zhen® examines power dynamics, representation, and the tensions of cultural hybridization. His composite works interrogate the displacement of meaning and context under accelerating globalization in the digital age.
