At the Rainbow Edge

Xiang Jing returned to the subject of the girl with a doll again in 2006 in one of the three-part set of painted bronzes entitled Unspeakable Sorrow (Fig. 4). Here she reverted to the image of the toddler again, but now the artist has endowed this figure (as well as the other two figures) with little emotional expression at all, as if observed from a detached perspective. Perhaps the “Unspeakable Sorrow” is a mourning for the loves and illusions, the dependencies, and the unrealizable expectations that all of us have had to give up in order to grow.

For about half a dozen years, from 1995 until after 2000, Xiang Jing’s work focused on portraying the experiences of childhood and adolescence. There are images of a long-legged pre-teen holding her fluffy orange cat (Cat That Won’t Sleep, 1996) (Fig. 5) – both look like they’ve been up all night! There are figures of a girl daydreaming [Daydream (II), 1995] (refer to p. 440), another primping with a bow in her hair (Bow, 1996) (Fig. 6), one bending forward, looking to see if she is being noticed in her turquoise leotard or swim suit (A Beam of Light, 1998) (Fig. 7). Another tries a glass of wine, perhaps for the first time (Wine, 1995) (refer to p. 439). A braless adolescent in a revealing shirt slides self-consciously off a stool in tight short-shorts with her midriff exposed, exploring her emergent sexuality [Empty Room (II), 1998] (refer to p. 417). Yet another looks at herself in a handheld mirror, smoking a cigarette and wearing a fashionable, flapper dress and hat (Cigarette, 1997) (Fig. 8). These small figures radiate the heartfelt experiences of youthful development.

After graduation from art school, Xiang Jing said,

 

I had no idea what to do, until one day it suddenly came to me. What interested me most, what had made the deepest impression upon me was my experience of growing up, adolescence: that golden era of my own life. Having delayed entry to the Academy, by the time I graduated I was almost twenty-seven. I realized that my youth would soon be gone; and that I had spent the entire period in school, which also prolonged the feeling of childhood, dependence. So, I started trying to capture an expression of youth.[9]