On April 20th 2011, artist and sculptor Xiang Jing’s exhibition “I Have Seen Happiness” opens in Park Hyatt at Beijing Yintai Center. In contrast to the artist’s custom practice to exhibit her larger-scale works, Xiang Jing embarks on a brand new experiment. In the past, she usually creates small-scale sculptures of separate subjects in single-pieces, while stating from the conception of this “I Have Seen Happiness” Series to the realization of this exhibition, the concept of “series” was put forward. A narrative linked by works of different sizes is formed, just like serial paintings on a long hand-scroll. So the intention is to exhibit “one complete work” at this exhibition.

Before she graduated from Central Academy of Fine Art in 1995, Xiang Jing participated in “The Four-Person Show in March”. Her first group of works was small in scale, and was based on sentiments about youth and memories of childhood. She continued on similar topics for several years, until her long-lasting “adolescence” finally ended after such continuous pouring of emotion in her creation. Later on, during her intense period focusing on the large-scale works, Xiang Jing ceased working on her smaller-scale works.

Compared to her large-scale works, Xiang Jing’s smaller works exude more sentiments as they record more evidence of the self-growth, and are easier to share with common people. Therefore, they are well liked by a lot of people. The ongoing warm reception by the public supports Xiang Jing to continue creating these smaller-scale woks intermittently, although her main interest has long shifted to larger-scale works that have established the her academic value and position.

The accumulation of these works through months and years are like marks in one’s life. Every time that Xiang Jing looks at these marks, there hasn’t been a single exhibition or a single catalogue as a living proof of their existence. “Doing something for these small-scale works” has become a bursting wish of the artist - therefore, the