"Upon This Anguish I Repose" is the first comprehensive, retrospective review by Xiang Jing of her 16 years of artistic career before 2011 (1995-2011), also presented in the exhibition of new works "S" is her latest artistic exploration and breakthrough in the last five years (2012-2016). 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.
In “S”, 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.