Albert Camus once said that, no artist can live without reality. Art can question reality, but art cannot escape from reality. Compared with most mature artworks, the living conditions and life stories behind the art production seem to be more intriguing. Taking from the first-person perspective, CAFA ART INFO is now presenting you with our latest micro video program, “Art Walk: Behind the Scenes”. With a focus on individual artists’ life stories, we will take you on a tour to explore how an artist actually works and lives in real-life situations. This series will be filmed at a part of the artists’ studios at some art districts in Beijing. Each artist’s unique character will be revealed to our audience in a more realistic and tangible way.

“Art Walk: Behind the Scenes”

Episode 11: Hu Jing

(Time：02' 57'')

Hu Jing was born in Hebei province in 1986. He graduated from the Department of Printmaking at China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2011. Hu Jing has made numerous small-scale installation works. His works tend to have a strong sense of technical skill which is due to his childhood experiences with assembled model kits. As for Hu Jing, life is what brings him inspiration while creating. He embraces the life experience and emotions from others, yet he also attempts to find his own little space in the world.

In Hu Jing’s works, you can always find some social hot spots. For example, environmental pollution, the living condition of people and food safety etc. Interestingly, in his works, Hu attempts to convey an optimistic attitude to the spectators. He never creates only for the sake of creation. Instead, the way he creates is more like writing a diary. In his series of work “The Room”, there appears to be tons of puppets, as a metaphor of the empty souls of the people who immerse themselves into vanity. Hu’s works blur the individual difference between people, in order to focus on living conditions in the current world. Moreover, his works can be seen as an objective reflection of people’s mental state, which are sometimes real, and sometimes hypocritical.

Hu Jing likes to drink colorful beverages. Therefore, in 2016 he created an installation work—“Water—Such a Beautiful Thing”. In the era of the Food Safety Trust crisis, the beverages that are made of a variety of food colors are becoming an essential part of people’s life. Meanwhile, people are unconsciously becoming the subject of experiments for food testing.

It is worth mentioning that, Hu Jing and his friends together opened a music bar in Song Zhuang in the January of 2018. Since then, Hu Jing’s art creations have become part of his real life. In the following years, Hu hopes to make more small-scale installation works and prepare for his very first exhibition.

Courtesy of the artist and CAFA ART INFO