Xiang Jing (born in Beijing in 1968) is one of the most eminent sculptors in China today. She became well-known for a series of painstakingly created sculptures of naked female figures, which have an elusive air of psychological tension. Although she distanced herself intentionally from the popular contemporary art movement, Xiang Jing established her reputation in the art field during the past ten years with successive solo exhibitions of substantial quality. Her sculpture Your Body was exhibited in “The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art”, at The Saatchi Gallery, London, in 2008, and was purchased for the collection. After she broke many auction records in China, Xiang Jing became ‘a commercially successful artist’ and gained celebrity status. And yet, despite the fame, she lives quite a frugal and disciplined life, devoted to her work and embracing a simple lifestyle.
"I am happy in a position of not needing to worry about making ends meet, which means I can focus my attention on creating. The important thing is we need to do something, incessantly to create in order to prove the value of our existence. Isn’t that so?" says Xiang Jing.
LIFE IN BEIJING
January 24th 2012, a freezing cold winter day in Beijing and the second day of the Chinese New Year Festival. Whilst most people enjoy the holiday with their families and friends at home, Xiang Jing arrives at her studio. Wrapped in a puffy down coat, her thin frame cuts a lonely figure in the totally deserted lofty rooms as all her assistants have gone for holiday some days ago. Putting on one of her favourite CDs to let the music fill the space, she starts to knead clay onto an armature.
“Hi, happy Spring Festival”, she chuckled merrily to me on the phone, “don’t call me workaholic! I just enjoy being on my own during the holidays. Here in the studio it is always full of people walking about assisting with the process of making sculpture, and Beijing is a bustling city, as you know. Only now can I have a moment of quietness, to immerse myself in a mood for solitude”. She sounds amused at her own turn of phrase. “This has been my habit for years. I never want to miss my ‘golden time’.”
Xiang Jing’s sculpture studio is located in the Dong Feng Art District where two rows of warehouse-like