The Soul Under the Skin – A Dialogue Between Xiang Jing and Quincy Ngan

her ideas. These statements encourage one to probe into what the skin of her sculptures intends to express and its significance to the artist. Because this topic has received little attention, the present interview focuses on the skin of Xiang’s sculptures and discusses her techniques as well as her views on skin whiteness and nakedness.

Quincy Ngan (QN): Yesterday, I saw your sculptures in person for the first time. I realized that the skin of your figures is actually not very realistic. There are many traces of brushwork evident.
Xiang Jing (XJ): All my works have traces of brushwork. I tend to emphasize the work of the hands. All the works on display in the gallery have a sense of how they were made. The pictures in the catalogues cannot show this. If we are going to touch on the issue of verisimilitude, I can tell you that I am, in fact, not that interested in representational realism or the tangible world. I am not interested in these styles.

QN: Yes. You said the skin of your figure sculptures is the type that one conceives of, but not the type that one can see.
XJ: More precisely, I want to express something more internal.  The English translation of my exhibition Quanluo is "Naked Beyond Skin". If someone sees pictures of my works and does not see the originals, he or she will compare me with that Western artist…

QN: Ron Mueck? I think you two are very different.
XJ: That’s right! Many people compare me to Ron Mueck. If you see our original works, you will see that there is actually no similarity at all. His technique is indeed exceptional. Perhaps it is because the worlds we live in are very different and thus the themes of our art have different intents. Our works of art are all figure sculptures. But I am not interested in representing the kind of realism embodied in his figures. I am not interested in that kind of reality.

QN: So, what do you mean by something more internal?
XJ: We can talk about “internal” in detail today. It has been twenty years since I graduated from university. It has been exactly twenty years. I did my first exhibition