Xiang Jing (artist)

Xiang Jing (born 1968, Beijing, China) is an artist based in Beijing working in sculpture. Xiang Jing graduated from the Department of Sculpting of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, which is located in Beijing, China. She was instantly successful in her field. Her graduating works won first prize in the "Graduation Show of Central Academy of Fine Arts 1995" and she also won the Okamatsu Family Fund. These sculptures that won these prizes were collected by the school because of the beauty and interest that were shown in them. After graduation, she continued to sculpt women and a few other objects. She taught at Shanghai Normal University. She has also recently been working for Chongqing University. She is widely known for her sculpting and is recognized by getting invitations to display her sculptures all over the world. Xiang Jing is one of the few successful sculptors or painters who excels at creating a woman's body which depicts the realistically and imperfection. She puts female characteristics in every sculpture she creates. Each sculpture seems to have a unique trait that tells a story of a certain aspect of life. Her sculpting has evolved since her original works at the Central Academy of Fine Arts to a unique style that is unmatched by any other artist. She continues to live and work in Shanghai. Most of her sculptures are based on women whose shows the imperfect nature and realness of women. She does not make her sculptures perfect; instead, she gives them flaws that are common in women. These flaws often include a flabby waistline, a lack of expression on the face, and often an off shaped body. Xiang Jing seems to convey the humility or emptiness of the everyday woman.

Recent studies

While being a teacher at Chongqing University, in Chongqing, China, she works with other artists to perform studies. Most of these studies focus on the advertisement and the relationship between traditional painting and the modern advertisement. These advertisements include many different methods including: plane advertisement, posters, billboards, political advertisement, government agencies, and companies. She has done studies to focus on modern paintings on posters. They focused on the aesthetic concept of traditional paintings on the design of modern advertising. Traditional paintings are still being appreciated, as they were in past generations, but in a different way. The contemporary Chinese art purpose is to attempt to mix the traditional work with modern brands, sayings, or political issues. The traditional aesthetic concepts bring a positive aspect to modern day advertisements. Xiang Jing seems to focus most of her studies on advertisements and how images affect the modern day advertisement. Contemporary advertisement using traditional methods was the center for a study put on by Xiang Jing and other professors. Xiang Jing did a study which looked at the scroll design of the Tang Murals in Dunhuang, China. This study focused on the cave architecture’s relationship to the murals. She worked with other university professors determined the scroll design combines the symbolic figures of traditional Chinese paintings. The Tang Dynasty is responsible for the murals in Dunhuang because of the creative techniques and forms of expression. The scrolls are very colorful and very decorative art expressions. Xiang Jing compared these scrolls to modern advertising and contrasted the different techniques used in each of them.

Works

Xiang Jing is considered highly satirical and there are questions that are raised surrounding the plight of the post-feminist movement of women. She shows the emotions and expresses the mindset of women which causes her work to shift from personal to political. Xiang Jing matches the outward appearance of the sculpture with inner philosophy and emotions of the same image. She is a well-rounded sculptor whose works include: some animal figures, clothed women, and naked women. The sculptures are made from different things; some of them are cast in bronze or polyurethane while others are painted fiberglass. As an artist, she seems to keep most of her focus on women and how she portrays them in her work. She captures the current trends, some popular activities that contemporary women indulge in (clubbing, shopping, etc.). Xiang Jing hardly ever uses synthetic materials in her works. She uses some props such as cigarettes. She is phenomenal at expressing the emotions of the women she sculpts. Depending on the work, most of the women seem to have the emotion of depression. In some of them there seems to be a sense of reflection or vulnerability. These sculptures have an eerie glow about them that conveys the emotion of anger or sadness. Happiness does not seem to be a theme in any of her creations.

Your Body

In one of her most famous works, Your Body, Xiang Jing made a huge naked women slumping in a large wooden chair. The women is sculpted and painted with porcelain. This is a prime example of the type of works Xiang Jing creates. The naked woman seems to have silky smooth skin which makes it look like plastic. This is done on purpose by Xiang Jing to show the material feel of women in the contemporary world. The face of the woman has a sort of blank look to it which makes it very interesting to look at. When looking into the eyes of the sculpture, the observer cannot help but feel the emotions they would see in a living human being. She seems slightly depressed while in a deep reflection. Her reflection leaves her in a place of humility and emptiness while the vulnerability of herself is shown through her nudity and posture. The body of the woman is imperfect. She has a flabby body and there is no clear beauty she has about her. Her face is intriguing but it does not have the “normal” aspects of beauty. The whole body seems real. She is just a normal woman with her own problems which she is contemplating. The slacking position gives a feel of comfort. She seems comfortable for where she is at but depressed on where her life is going. Xiang Jing presents the woman’s body naked because it instantly grabs the attention of the viewers. It is slightly controversial which makes it a topic for discussion. After the audience gets past the nakedness, they will look closer and see the features that tell the rest of the meaning behind the work.

Bang!

This is one of the more interesting Works of Xiang Jing. It shows two women in modern clothing, one of which is cowering in fear while the other is smiling. The woman that is smiling has her hand shaped as a gun and it pointing it directly towards the head of the other woman. The woman that is in fear does not seem to realize the feeling on her head is just the finger of the other woman. She truly believes she is about to die. After looking closely, her eyes are shut and it feels like she is letting out a terrified scream. The other woman seems to be taking joy in this action. This is a good example of how Xiang Jing shows a sense of violence through her work. The woman is taking pleasure in the fear and fear of the other woman. The woman who is in fear is vulnerable because of her fear of death. The women are in modern clothes, Xiang Jing is trying to show that some women live in this sort of fear in the modern day. She is showing that there are two different types of women; the ones who fear and those who are feared. She could also be playing on the violence of society causing people to live in fear or society causing the violence. This is another sculpture painted in porcelain. It is very realistic. Unlike Your Body, the women are in shape but they seem real still. Xiang Jing creates lifelike sculpture to portray a stronger message to the audience.

Skin Tight

This work is a good example of a work by Xiang Jing. The figures in this work are very realistic. They could easily be mistaken as real women if they were viewed from a distance. Once the viewer gets closer to the work they can tell that they are just sculptures. This work shows mystery behind the work of Xiang Jing. The viewers can not understand what is trying to be conveyed to them through the women. The women clearly have something wrong but it is not clear what it is. There eyes seem like they are in depression or is some sort of discomfort. It is up to the viewer to decide what is wrong and what the women are doing to try to fix it. In all of Xiang Jing's works there is a sense of mystery behind the women. She conveys different emotions with their eyes but it is the individual viewer to imagine what experiences the woman has gone through and what she is feeling.

Quotes

Directly From Xiang Jing

“Each female artist possesses sensitivity, particularly with regard to gender or issues. Before making this batch of sculptures, I reflected on why I have always avoided a feminist stance, though in truth I confront gender roles. What, after all, is my instinctive fundamental stance? Without any hesitation I know my own stance, just as I look at this world with a woman’s eyes, as a matter of my intrinsic nature. This is not simply a question of gender politics. Given this undeniable precondition, I will definitely speak from my feminine identity. I use the female body first of all to remind people that I am a woman. In this world I live in, a naked figure commands more attention, after all, than one wearing clothes. So I use a woman’s body to state who I am, to speak of how a woman thinks and looks at things. This is the foundation on which I create these pieces. I am no longer those women in art history who were always being looked at. Given this approach to creating female figures, I do not feel they are a hackneyed subject. I like to say that my mode of expression is “in the first person.” –“Female Self-Presence”

About Xiang Jing

“Xiang Jing is an unusually independently-minded young Chinese woman. Her personality is a blend of bohemian free spirit and down-to-earth common sense, underscored by a feisty mental attitude towards life and art. Life saw fit to place this personality in a delicate physical frame, and set behind a pair of large round eyes, the innocence of which belies this woman’s talent for penetrating insight. Where, to date, Xiang Jing’s art has focused on the female form, the woman’s body has evolved as a conduit for her observations on the state of women in contemporary China: observations that, in early 2008, she decided to draw together in one exhibition, and to act as a denouement for this phase of her career. Having reached a certain maturity, Xiang Jing feels it is time to move onto something new.” -Karen Smith in “Xiang Jing- Say it Loud”

Solo exhibitions

2001

• Day Dream- Solo Exhibition, IVY Bookstore, Shanghai, China.

2003

• Women in the Mirror, Chinese European Art Center, Xiamen, China.
• Art of Xiang Jing, Tuan Cheng Gallery, Beijing, China.

2005

• Keep In Silence, China Art Seasons Gallery, Beijing, China.

2006

• Your Body- Xiang Jing 2000-2005, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

2008

• Naked Beyond Skin- An Asian Touring Project of Sculpture Imageries by Xiang Jing, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Beijing, China.

Group exhibitions

2006

• Entry Gate: Chinese Aesthetics of Heterogeneity, MOCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China.
• China Now, the ESSL Collection of Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria.
• Between River and Lake, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York.

2005

• Extravagant Age: Sculpture Prognostication-Chinese Contemporary Outdoors Sculpture Art Exhibition",Hai Yi Chang Zhou Storied Building locale,Tianjin,China.
• Underground Carbarn, Hangzhou, China.
• Multiple Definition/Imaginary Community Contemporary Art Exhibition, the Compound Center of WanKe Crystal City, Tianjin, China.

2004

• Dreams of the Dragon's Nation—Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland.
• MMAC Art College Performance Festival 2004, Aizu-Mishima / Tokyo, Japan.
• Witness—Sculptures by Xiang Jing and Guangci, He Xiangning Art Museum,Shenzhen, China.
• China Imagination: Chinese Contemporary Sculptural Art Exhibition, Jardindes Tuileries, Paris, France.

2003

• New Zone – Chinese Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland.
• Sculptures by Xiang Jing and Guangci, Casas-Museu da Taipa, Macau, China.
• XII Inner Spaces multimedia festival, CCA Inner Spaces, Poznan, Poland.
• The third Shanghai Young Sculptors Exhibition, Century Plaza, Nanjing Road,Shanghai, China.
• National Art Gallery, Beijing, China.

2002

• Xiang Jing Guang Ci 2002 —Mirror Image, Invisible Gallery, Shanghai, China.
• The Standards of Chinese Contemporary Sculptures, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China

2001

• Salon' d'automne, Espace Auteuil, Paris, France.
• The 32nd Grosse Kunst Ausstellung Düsseldorf, Eingang Nord, Düsseldorf, Germany.
• Framed Samples—The 1st Chengdu Art Biennale, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu, China.

2000

• Yawn was exhibited in the Chinese Contemporary Sculptures Invitation Exhibition, Tsingtao Sculptural Art Gallery, Tsingtao, China.
• Young Sculptors Invitation Exhibition, West Lake Art Gallery, Shengzhen.
• College of Sculpture and Tsingtao Sculpture Gallery, China.
• Conversations with Henry Moore - Sculptures Invitation Exhibition, Guangdong Art Gallery, Guangzhou, China.

1999

• Journey to the End of Century – The 2nd Exhibition,+ New Space-ART Express, Beijing, China.
• Chinese Sculptures Annual Exhibition, He Xiang-ning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China.
• Oil Paintings & Sculptures by Teachers from the Fine Art college, Shanghai.
• The Century Gate – Invitation Exhibition of Chinese Art from 1979–1999, Chengdu Modern Art Gallery, Chengdu, China.

1998

• Century-Female, Chinese National Art Gallery, Beijing, China
• October Exhibition for Beijing Youth Sculptors, Gallery of Central Academy of Contemporary Sculptural Art Annual Exhibition, He Xiangning Art Gallery, Shenzhen, China.
• Chinese Artists Exhibition, Zurichsee-Auktionen Gallery, Switzerland.
• Platform for Both Genders, Taida Contemporary Art Museum, Tianjin, China.

1995

• The Four-Girl Show in March, Modern Art Gallery, Beijing, China.
• Graduate Show, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China.
• Chinese Women Artists Invitation Exhibition, Chinese National Art Gallery, Beijing, China.

External links

• Works by Xiang Jing