In Zhang Xu Zhan’s work Si So Mi the artist’s familial, traditional craft of making objects from paper that are burnt at funeral ceremonies as an offering to the afterlife, provides a contemplation on the boundaries between life and death, especially as material cultures are rapidly dying in favour of digital. Set to a German song that is also popularly played during funerals in Taiwan, paper-mice perform a funeral procession. Consistently interested in the intelligence and survival instincts of small animals, in this work the artist also pays tribute to other-than-human sentience, as these rodents are able to navigate urban living contexts, constantly threatened by annihilation, even as larger more powerful animals have been segregated to diminishing forested areas globally, displaying resilience that could potentially lead them to a future humanity may have trouble arriving to.
以自己的家庭事業出發，張徐展的〈Si So Mi〉將喪禮上作為祭品焚燒的傳統紙紮轉化為創作，在當今物質正快速被數位取代的社會前提下，反思生與死之間的界線。作品的背景音樂為一首經常在台灣喪禮播放的德國歌曲，呈現紙老鼠喪隊的行進影像。張徐展一直以來都關注小動物的生存智慧以及本能；此件作品則致敬那些人類以外的存有。當世界上更大型的動物都被驅趕至日益縮減的林地生存，這些嚙齒動物卻能夠在都市環境裡存活，持續面臨毀滅的威脅。這些老鼠所展現的能耐與韌性，很可能使牠們有能力前往人類未必能達成的未來景緻。