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Popular Culture Review
In this view of the interior muscles of Meat-Man, the viewer realizes what
we encounter is not really the superheroic being but a victimized being whose
skin is flayed. Meat-man is not wearing a meat-suit but appears on the streets
minus his skin. His skin seems to have been stripped off as a form of martyrdom
like Saint Bartholomew (who was flayed alive and then crucified upside down
for refusing to worship pagan gods). As Michelangelo depicted his self-portrait
on the flayed skin of Saint Bartholomew in the Last Judgment of the Sistine
Chapel, Zhang Huan seems to provide a reversed version of self-portrait in this
image of the body without skin. While Zhang himself does not comment on any
Christian connotations here, religious sentimentality in My New York is
prominent, especially considering Meat-man’s only action during the
performance. His action is not like those in Hollywood superhero movies loaded
with special effects and stuffed with eye-straining action sequences designed to
leave you glutted with sensation, but is a very muted, quiet mission of handing
out doves to bystanders in the streets so that they can free the birds. The doves, a
symbol of peace, reconciliation, and liberation, seem to be the reason why Meat
man had to suffer from being flayed alive. The skinlessness of Meat-man must
be an inevitable consequence to save these peaceful creatures. The viewers are
only witnessing the end sequence of a heroic martyr who seems to have gone
through excruciating hardships to emancipate the doves. The moment of climax
is over and we are only allowed to rejoice in this last scene of redemption.
The unsaid, unexplained, hidden narrative of Zhang’s performance has a
Buddhist allusion since the very act of liberating the doves references “the
Buddhist tradition of setting live animals free to accumulate grace.” At this
juncture, his references to Christianity and Buddhism cross over. At this point of
convergence, we encounter irony. Meat-man’s reenactment of the peace-keeping
activities of American fictional superheroes and Buddhism during his
promenade contradicts the body of meat itself. Beef indicates violence in Asian
Buddhist cultures due to its link to killing of animals and it is rather discouraged
to feed on meat. But Meat-man’s over-muscular body itself also signifies near
cannibalism since he must have eaten his brethren to maintain this level of
musculature, which contradicts the very act of promoting peace. As the post971 1 United States has connected the meaning of peace and peace-keeping with
preemptive strikes, Meat-man, in My New York, seems to question the very
meaning of peace. Zhang’s performance is not an example of ridicule or satire,
not a political criticism against war, but rather a kind of self-awareness that
realizes ironies and complexities in the meaning of peace and violence as they
converge or intersect so frequently.
The viewer’s unsettled mind after the awakening can be relieved knowing
the whereabouts of the lost flayed skin of Meat-man. Where is the skin of Meat
man? It seems to belong to the Buddha. As recent scholars and art critics like
Pemilla Holmes, Jacquelynn Bass, and Mary Jane Jacob argue, Zhang Huan’s
latest works gradually concern Buddhism and its meanings and often feature
direct Buddhist images.10 Where is Meat-man’s original cow skin? We find the