“Will things ever get better？”After three years, Xiang Jing threw out this question as the theme of her new solo exhibition which summarizes her creations from 2008 to 2011, this can also be taken as her first announcement since she put an end to her series of “Female Body”. This exhibition includes two series: Mortals(Acrobatics) and Otherworld(Animals), a total of 14 groups of works which jointly convey the artist’s endeavor in seeking an outlet in contemporary art vocabulary, exploring our position in the game structure under the context of philosophy.
“Will Things Ever Get Better?” The title of this exhibition comes from a heart-wrenching dialogue between the philosopher Liang Shuming and his father Liang Ji. Previously, Liang Shuming wrote the following passage:
Life partakes of the mind; it is the expression of mind over matter; it is the struggle of mind with matter. History (cosmic history) has always been mind’s struggle with matter. History is enacted on one occasion after another, taking one step after another, as mind overcomes matter and rests upon matter and makes use of matter. Only by entering deeply into oneself, by understanding oneself and finding ways to confront oneself, can one avoid and go beyond non-wisdom and unworthiness. This is a lesson that comes from the abyss; it is the highest-reaching and most admirable accomplishment.
Mortals-Flexible Body by Xiang Jing
Mortals-Only A Mirror Can Dream About Reflections by Xiang Jing
Mortals-The Trinity by Xiang Jing
Mortals －Maybe I want it all the darkness of each endless fall
Mortals-Endless Tower by Xiang Jing
Xiang Jing extracts “lift” and “jujitsu” from the skill elements of the acrobatic in eight groups of her Acrobatic series. She further exaggerated their style in her expectation that audiences can interpret the “anti-human” side of acrobatics from the impossible gestures. For instance, in her “Endless Tower”, each woman has to flip her legs to her head with a smile as required by a performance, the body demonstrates incredible flexibility which bears the gravity of her posture. The stiff and empty smile covers their physical pressure. In her molding of “Mortals-Maybe I want it all the darkness of each endless fall”, the point of power with the actor’s body is conceived of at an usual angle which is almost impossible in reality.
Otherworld-Will things ever get better? by Xiang Jing
Otherworld-Will things ever get better? 02 by Xiang Jing
Otherworld-The Silver Age by Xiang Jing
Otherworld-The Silver Age 02 by Xiang Jing
Otherworld-Over Yonder by Xiang Jing
Otherworld-Only on the Bank Do we Rest by Xiang Jing
Otherworld-Invulnerable Beast by Xiang Jing
Otherworld-Prophet by Xiang Jing
As in her series of “Animals”, Xiang Jing further departs from her previous depiction of creations. The shape of these animals seems simple, realistic, yet contains a subtle distortion as they are often different from the realistic singular prototype in detail by blending the characteristics of other animal species and the artist’s own imagination. Through mottled colors they imply mysterious vicissitudes of life, or to some extent are reminiscent of “Shan Hai Jing” or Argentine writer Boer He Sri Lanka’s imaginary text of “fantasy animals”. Most of them are presented in a crouched posture which seems to deliberately reduces our sight and even requires us to crawl to fully appreciate the expressions and their inner world. Through contemplation and pondering over the “Animal” series, we will forget the specific content of the social situation while amplifying the nature of life (in her own words) the attributes are part of a natural human. Her initial set of “being watched” which is not the focus of peoples’ contemplation, on the contrary, it’s we who feel we are “being watched”, examined and questioned conversely by these single lonely standing images.
In a recent interview titled “World of ‘Being,’ Are You Alright?” Xiang Jing commented on her upcoming exhibition:
“Acrobats” has a distinct flavor of performance, but “Animals” is more connected to the sense of being surrounded by onlookers. On the surface these themes seemingly have nothing to do with my focus on human nature and emotional pain in previous works. Maybe it is because the part of a person I was concerned with before had to do with natural attributes, whereas the issue of “predicament” that I’m working with now is directly connected to a person’s sense of identity. “Role” or “performance” or “being looked at”—I think these concepts can bring out fresh, intense expressions of identity. At the same time, through these ways of “seeing” people are reminded of their predicament.
As curator and art critic Zhu Zhu commented on Xiang Jing's new exhibition in her essay entitled Mind Versus Matter: Fairytale or Allegory? "For an artist, one’s past self is tantamount to matter, but even ambitions of self-transcendence may turn out to be a kind of objectification. However, arduous creative work that actively heightens one’s own “mind-matter struggle” offers at least one advantage—a chance to attain what Buddhists call “right views.” By proceeding in this direction, one can gain contemplative insight into one’s own being. Once one is freed from the dread of losing direction in the short term, then the most pristine part of oneself—the part which has power to move others—will be preserved. Like the “busun” [Invulnerable beast, literally “no-loss”] which Xiang Jing sculpted according to the legend of the Classic of Mountains and Rivers (this creature’s flesh is impervious to sharp blades, since it regenerates what is chopped away), her being in its wholeness will someday regenerate a more trenchant, far-reaching expression of spirit.
Xiang Jing
Xiang Jing (b.1968 Beijing) is an artist based in China as a leading sculptor. She graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts with her master's degree in 1995 . She taught at the Department of Fine Arts in Shanghai Normal University from 1999 to 2007. Together with her husband Qu Guangci, she has her own studio--X+Q Sculpture Studio established in 2007. She now lives and works in Beijing.
"Speak through the body" has remained to be one of her labels of creations. Her former solo exhibitions--"Keep Silent: (2003-2005) and "Naked"(2006-2007) convey her thought on "female body" which was her thread of work. Some of her representives such as "Your Body"(2005), "Opener"(2006) and "Are you preformanced by one hundred people or just one?"(2007) through her various stages--"Virgin Series", "Body Series" and "Naked Series" manifest her mature development of vocabulary, her experiment on sculptures as well as her multiple reflections through space and mirror image during her work, which ultimately reverberate her exploration on the outside of female body beyond "gender" and her ulitization of body as her proposition to illustrate the relationship between some group with the whole world.
Organizer: Today Art Museum
Opening: 4mp, September 23
Duration: September 24--October 15
Venue: 2nd floor exhibition hall of building 1, Today Art Museum, Beijing
