While the garden owner may not be able to travel to far-off mountains to refresh his or her spirit, a microcosmic representation of nature can have the same effect. Now that an individual's access to space has become more limited than ever, a stainless steel stone combining the qualities of rocks and water seems the perfect solution. Some of Zhan Wang's sculptures explore the philosophical values of materials in a purer, more straightforward manner. His paired sets of granite and stainless steel blocks, for example, draw a comparison between natural and manufactured, old and new. They highlight the material differences, and display the complexity of the natural.
Granite is a visually complex stone and contrasts the shining simplicity of the manmade.
The shininess of steel is yang, and granite's non reflective surface is dark, or yin. The old has weight, the new does not. The old is sufficient unto itself whereas the new is illusion, its surface decoration mere reflection of what is outside it. Old and new, natural and manufactured can coexist as a harmonious whole, just as the essential opposites yin and yang do. Zhan Wang is not concerned merely with the impact of the changing physical environment upon the quality of life.