Xiang Jing Museum Retrospective "Upon This Anguish I Repose" + New Work "S" Solo Exhibition Opens

2016-09

On September 18, 2016, Xiang Jing’s large-scale retrospective exhibition “Upon This Anguish I Repose” and exhibition of her new work “S” opens at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum. Renowned critic Zhu Zhu is the curator of this exhibition. This is the first comprehensive, retrospective review conducted by Xiang Jing of her 16 years of artistic career before 2011, also presented in the exhibition of new works is her latest artistic exploration and breakthrough in the last five years.

The theme running through Xiang Jing’s 20+ years of creative work is the artist’s discussion of the current predicament of humanity and its possible way out. Four themed series made public previously include “Mirror” (1999-2002), “Keep in Silence” (2003-2005), “Naked Beyond Skin” (2006-2008) and “Will Things Ever Get Better?” (2009-2011), documenting the artist’s attempts to reveal the obscured humanity, from individual experiences of growing up, to broader discourses about the female gender, to human’s existence in the social structure, the works dig deep into discovering the course of evidence of life existence. For the first time, over 100 works of varying sizes will be curated to exhibit in the same museum space, from small-scale sculptures displaying the artist’s sensitivities, to life-size sculptures, to large-scale works that run through several decades, etc.

In new works “S” (2012-2016), Xiang Jing continues her core exploration - humanity, inviting discussions of topics including “sex without object”, “power’s suppression of mechanisms of pleasure”, depression, reverse angling and reconfiguration of memory, meanwhile, she weakens and offsets the “the overly lyrical elements” through the self-destruction of representation, gradually breaking apart literary structures and in turn relying plainly on figures to integrate layers of feelings and thoughts, turning from narratives to abstract figuratives.

The artist has pointed out how important viewing in person is to the self-examination of art, particularly in the context of the prevailing modern art “conceptualism and concept doctrine”, so with viewers standing in front of the works and experiencing their “live power”, it is precisely what Xiang Jing keeps stressing - the “perceptibility” of art, which is to say, without relying on excessive textual interpretation, art attempts to open up viewers’ long closed bodies so they can enter the psychological context constructed by the artist, and the “mirror” of art reflects exactly the inner beings of viewers, that is, the “truth beneath the skin”; at the same time, this approach aims to combat fragmentation, thinking that lack explorations of spiritual depth, and consumerism that occurs in an era of images. 

The exhibition occupies the entire museum space across three floors, with Exhibition Hall 1 exhibiting all the new works in "S" (2012-2016). Exhibition Hall 2 is the Retrospective Exhibition (1995-2011), with four documenatries reflecting the artist's creative journey across 13 years play in the video area on the second floor. Exhibition Hall 3 is dedicated to Documentation, showing the artist's past exhibition catalogues and collection of essays. The exhibition continues until October 22nd, 2016. 

To view more about new works in "S", please click here. 
To view more about the exhibition installation view, pleae click here.
To view the published exhibition catalogue S — Xiang Jing 2012-2016, please click here.