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“Zhang’s most recent effort, Flying Blues, 1996, moves away from his obsessive involvement with Mao, towards a more lyrical expression of freedom. In this piece some 300 feathers hang by string from a burlap canopy, on which the artist has painted the Daoist symbols for the four compass points. Beneath these features, on the floor, is a sand painting of bright blue sky with white clouds. Although here Zhang expresses himself with more complex imagery, again he is addressing the possibilities of freedom. The feathers, symbolising flight, never quite reach the sky, which lies on the floor in topsy-turvy fashion. It is clear that the feathers’ poise, however endless, never attains the heaven of the Tibetan-inspired sand painting, itself an object for mediating on, rather than actually realising , the possible in art and mind.” – Zhang Hongtu, Art Asia Pacific - Issue November 15, 1997 by Jonathan Goodman, p91
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