What happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them. The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order to persist after the supervening of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered; and so, the relations, proportions, values of each work of art toward the whole are readjusted . . . ; the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. And the poet who is aware of this will be aware of great difficulties and responsibilities.
This is a sense of history; at the same time it is an artist’s strong awareness of her historical position and her contemporary value. Otherworld – which is the name Xiang Jing gave her artwork in English – ushers us into an alternate world, a world of tradition. She emphasizes recognition of the past in this piece, and I foresee that this awareness will grow stronger throughout her creative career: she will keep giving herself to something of greater value.
Now this realistic horse created by Xiang Jing is displayed before us in an exhibition hall, standing in an abstract setting. Horses in many past works have always pertained to a specific background or environment, but this horse has empty space on all sides, with only blank whiteness above. This is purely a horse from head to tail, and the background is a pure and simple expanse, as if nothing could be purer, and this is what sparks a chain of associations in the mind’s eye of a viewer.
The four bronze horses (Fig. 1) housed in Venice’s St. Mark’s Cathedral, dating back to 400 B.C., are said to be the creations of Lysippos. Those too are life-sized