"Xiang Jing: Through No One's Eyes But My Own" is the first major solo exhibition by a female artist shown in the Long Museum. As the last exhibition of the sculpture year 2017, it is not limited to a retrospective show, but a brilliant comprehensive summary of Xiang Jing's artistic output over the past 21 years.

As a self-professed "enthusiastic observer of human nature", Xiang Jing meditates on the nothingness and struggle of individuals in their negligible life. Her work carries a kind of sensitivity. These sculptural figures appear to be seeking answers by observing the world around them, while simultaneously acting as an affirmation of their own existence. The action of "seeing" is exceedingly important to Xiang Jing, as she once mentioned that artistic creation started with seeing the world. However, this kind of
"seeing" is beyond seeing itself; it is more about examining the relationship between the world and "me". The world relates closely to "me", and our personal experience proves to be a process of reaffirming self-existence. Seeing the outside world reflects our seeing into our inner selves. As for the world that we are living in, a description of it is far from enough. It is the duty of the artist to construct a spiritual world in his or her own way. Xiang Jing's work provides a possibility that what we perceive exists in reality thought her artistic language of sculpture, which is a distinctive medium through which "instantaneity and eternity, appearance and essence" can be expressed. In this exhibition, the viewers are invited to see, both with the eyes and the body.

Different from the language style of interpreting contemporary art, Xiang Jing values "perceptibility" of art and the importance of self-attesting the works on site. Therefore, this exhibition uses space as the main clue. The concrete cavernous halls of the Long Museum are divided and reorganized – the exhibition hall entrance has been first transformed; now viewers walk from a narrow corridor which opens up into a broad and free space that guides the viewers into Xiang Jing's spiritual garden.

21 years has been integrated into the museum's 3600 square meters. "Mirror Image" (1999-2002), "Keep in Silence" (2003-2005), "Naked Beyond Skin" (2006-2008), "Will Things Ever Get Better?" (2009-2011), "S" (2012-2016) and "I Have Seen Happiness" (2002-2010) are the artist's six series consisting of 85 sets of works. The viewers encounter these at the Long Museum, being told the artist’s confusion and reflection in the face of challenges in life; her seeking of a breakthrough in the sculpture language; and her narrating of a difficult journey of self-construction.

For the first time the Long Museum has employed all three exhibition halls, including the ground floor, the first floor and the stair-stepped gallery for one exhibition, to construct a spiritual garden for the artist who has been preparing for it over the past 21 years. Through her works, we could recognize the change of her vision throughout these years, while her original concern for self identity, for women and for human nature has never wavered.

Touching the existence itself with the keen pain of human nature, Xiang Jing has a deep caring for one's struggle in his or her life. The pain and joy in everyone's life can be perceived through no one's eyes but our own.