Featured Artist of The Week: Jing Qiu!
"Occasionality, unknownness, directness, and emotion are the essence of my paintings. In
matter and spirit, symbol and metaphor, truth and lies, complexity and simplicity,
square and circle, line and surface, the borders of space are blurred through the
interweaving of elements, and the spiritual world of the self is explored. There is
fragility, doubt, fading, destruction, struggle, contemplation, breakthrough and
rebirth.
What I saw and felt are all turned into a part of the work and flowed and presented to the
audience. It is a dialogue with the audience as well as with yourself. Everything is created
in the unknown, unconsciously and with the subconscious of my own creation, have
fun."
Selected artwork:
Artworks in order:
The Solid of Desolation 6×6×50cm Mixed media sculpture 2021
The sculpture series Desolation is an extension of my 2020 installation project
Hunger. The work is inspired by the food waste I see and produce from my daily
cooking. I looked at the wasted food and thought about how many people in this
world, both at home and abroad, are still unable to feed themselves. I began to
reflect on myself and focused my attention on the hungry.
In my research I discovered that in some difficult times of famine throughout history,
there had been acts of cannibalism. I pondered what kind of hunger it is that can
make people eat people. There is no way to empathise with people, so in order to
simulate a state of extreme hunger I thought I needed to have experienced it myself
in order to understand the suffering and hardship of a hungry group. So I took the
next step forward. Without harming my body too much, I designed a seven-day
starvation experiment to allow myself to feel hunger first-hand. I also visualised and
recorded my physical and psychological state. The final presentation is in the form of
a sculpture. The intention is to make the viewer think, to be aware of the hungry and
to be grateful for the life of the present.
Web of Desolation 36×20×36cm Mixed media sculpture 2021
The inspiration for this project came from my good friend's mother who
took her own life in 2018 due to mental illness. When this tragic news
happened in my life, I became concerned and aware of the rate of
suicide caused by mental illness. I hope that more people will have a
proper understanding of how these illnesses feel and affect them.
In my hypothetical dystopian space, I use the perspective of a non-
patient to experience the emotions of a person with bipolar disorder
through a meal, and after the experience, let go of the prejudice against
the patient's story. It also satirises the internet's consumption of
patients for profit. The overall style is absurd, painful and reflective.
The way to interact with the viewer is through video. The viewer
contemplates whether he or she has ever been the verbal abuser in the
picture. After experiencing the patient's feelings in this hypothetical
space, did they change their own prejudices against the patient?
special dishes -video -1'15'' 2020
The inspiration for this project came from my good friend's mother who
took her own life in 2018 due to mental illness. When this tragic news
happened in my life, I became concerned and aware of the rate of
suicide caused by mental illness. I hope that more people will have a
proper understanding of how these illnesses feel and affect them.
In my hypothetical dystopian space, I use the perspective of a non-
patient to experience the emotions of a person with bipolar disorder
through a meal, and after the experience, let go of the prejudice against
the patient's story. It also satirises the internet's consumption of
patients for profit. The overall style is absurd, painful and reflective.
The way to interact with the viewer is through video. The viewer
contemplates whether he or she has ever been the verbal abuser in the
picture. After experiencing the patient's feelings in this hypothetical
space, did they change their own prejudices against the patient?
Hunger 80 x 40 x 40cm mixed media installation 2020
The sculpture series Desolation is an extension of my 2020 installation project
Hunger. The work is inspired by the food waste I see and produce from my daily
cooking. I looked at the wasted food and thought about how many people in this
world, both at home and abroad, are still unable to feed themselves. I began to
reflect on myself and focused my attention on the hungry.
In my research I discovered that in some difficult times of famine throughout history,
there had been acts of cannibalism. I pondered what kind of hunger it is that can
make people eat people. There is no way to empathise with people, so in order to
simulate a state of extreme hunger I thought I needed to have experienced it myself
in order to understand the suffering and hardship of a hungry group. So I took the
next step forward. Without harming my body too much, I designed a seven-day
starvation experiment to allow myself to feel hunger first-hand. I also visualised and
recorded my physical and psychological state. The final presentation is in the form of
a sculpture. The intention is to make the viewer think, to be aware of the hungry and
to be grateful for the life of the present.
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