HOW DOES WOMAN SPEAK WITH HER BODY?
YOU Yong: Your works in these recent two to three years provide another very powerful existence to us, which is a new style in the history of woman’s body expression. First of all, she is not a woman body from men’s point of view. They are naked, but neither sexy, nor seductive. Woman body can bring about any possible impulse of man, but your works just shut down the valve of man’s fancy for sex. Many female artists finally fall into the trap that sexual power is alternative on their way to review themselves and rebel against men’s prejudiced viewpoint. However you never follow them.
Secondly, the “she” in your works is just like a pure existence of herself, which seems to be excluded from any certain circumstance or social property deliberately, and “she” is even out of the map of Chinese contemporary art.
XIANG Jing: These could be the two very important points. I would like to restate that I am not interested in playing with female themes, only because “I” am a woman, speaking and thinking with my female body myself. Therefore “she” is no longer an object, a female being, an existence being viewed, or a body that should be aesthetical and accordance to other’s imagination. The body is “herself”, not a proper gesture to be viewed. It is even not self-appreciated. The body — the existence of “herself” can think and make expression freely. It is my starting point generally, without which almost nothing could come into existence.
YOU Yong: When men see the women in your works at the first sight, they will feel frustrated and confused. The women are extremely beautiful, but not sexy, so the former experience of those men doesn’t work. These works even exclude some social properties, so they are beyond the interpretation system of Chinese Contemporary Art as well.
XIANG Jing: I do not consider the aspect of social property in this series at this moment. Now I only want to interpret the theme of each solo exhibition or each series clearly — not necessarily to make it too big but to make it profound. I plan to hold a solo exhibition every two to three years. Each solo will present a series of new artworks, and each new series may tell