"My music teacher was my dad, and he's been in the National Factory for twenty years..." In 1993, Ai Jing became popular throughout Asia for one of his original albums, My 1997. Today, more than twenty years later, she has completed her gorgeous transformation from singer to visual artist. Ai Jing returned to her hometown of Shenyang, and her solo art exhibition "My Mother and My Hometown" was held at the China Industrial Museum on October 27.
"The factory is the paradise in my heart"
Ai Jing and father
As written in Ai Jing's lyrics, she grew up in a kindergarten in the factory. Looking back on her childhood, the factory in her eyes is like this:
"I often went to my father's workshop to watch him work, and the uncles and aunts were very young, their faces were full of the pride and pride of the working class, and the dark blue uniforms they wore were particularly beautiful. The smell of the engine oil in the factory is particularly sweet, the sound of the machines turning is particularly pleasant, and the huge cranes moving in the workshop are particularly magical, and in my eyes the factory is like a paradise. ”
Ai Jing and mother
Her father used an erhu to lure her into the hall of music. At the age of 16, she was admitted to the vocal music department of Shenyang Art School, and at the age of 17, she left her hometown to join the Beijing Oriental Song and Dance Troupe, and participated in the recording of the music album "Big Trend", which had achieved more than 6 million cassette sales that year. Among them, one of the songs she sang, "Shenyang, My Hometown", was popular all over the country. Later, "My 1997" made her even more popular in Asia.
In 1999, Ai Jing began to study painting, studied under the artist Zhang Xiaogang, and then moved to New York to study contemporary art. In 2007, she was officially invited as an artist for the first time to participate in the art group exhibition "Premonition". In 2008, he held his first solo art exhibition "ALL ABOUT LOVE" at the Today Art Museum in Beijing. In September 2011, the French art collection agency DSL COLLECTION collected Ai Jin's "LOVE" series of paintings. In November 2012, she held a solo exhibition "I LOVE AI JING: Ai Jing Comprehensive Art Exhibition" at the National Museum of China, becoming the first contemporary artist to hold a solo exhibition since the establishment of the National Museum of China. In May 2014, "LOVE AIJING: Ai Jing's Love" toured the China Art Museum in Shanghai, and Ai Jing became the first contemporary artist to hold a solo exhibition here since the establishment of the museum.
So this time, why did the artist Ai Jing choose to hold a solo exhibition in his hometown of Shenyang, where contemporary art is not well developed? It all started with the death of my mother three years ago.
Three years ago, on October 27, Ai Jing's mother died in Shenyang. Ai Jing returned to his hometown and accompanied his father through those painful days. At this time, a friend invited her to visit the China Industrial Museum in Shenyang's Tiexi District.
"In fact, at that time, I was not in a very good state, and I reluctantly went, and after I went, I found that it evoked a lot of memories."
That trip made Ai Jing silently have an idea in his heart - to hold an exhibition here to commemorate his mother.
Mother and hometown
The grief and nostalgia for her mother's death are always personal and family emotional fluctuations. How to transform this intimate emotion into the common language of the public has become the biggest difficulty facing Ai Jing.
The predecessor of the China Industrial Museum is the Shenyang Foundry, which has spent 60 years to complete the nearly 200-year industrial process of the world's developed countries, and has also made Shenyang the largest industrial center city in China, known as the eldest son of the "Republic".
"Because I am the eldest son of my family, I think there is a fit between me and the eldest son of the Republic."
This factory witnessed the golden age of Shenyang's industrial development, but it also gradually declined with the changes of the years. In Ai Jing's formative years, she and her family were also witnesses of the fading of the glorious era.
Leaving his mother at the age of 17 and leaving his hometown for Beijing was a turning point in Ai Jing's life, a process of separation from the physical and spiritual "mother body". She continued her chapter in the outside world, while her mother, with her hometown, in a corner of northeast China, survived silently. It wasn't until her mother's death that she discovered how lamentable the decline of the city and the loss of the pride of the working class that had lived here were.
This exhibition is not only her remembrance of her mother, but also her recollection of her childhood and the decline of the once glorious industrial era.
The declining factories and workers who have lost confidence depicted in Wang Bing's documentary "Tiexi District" are very different from the "paradise-like places" and "proud uncles and aunts" in Ai Jing's childhood memories. This series of documentaries also resonated with the two Chinese and Western curators of the exhibition, Michel Baudson and Mr. Zhu Qingsheng.
"It's not just our problem in Shenyang, it's the whole world."
In Ai Jing's eyes, the glorious era of his hometown has a deeper meaning, and some things will never fade.
"The most important spiritual core of my hometown in my eyes is 'we workers have strength.'"
Ai Jing hopes to comb through the changes in his hometown through his own installation art, find the connection between the old industrial city and contemporary art, explore the way out and direction here, and re-emit the light here.
Exhibition Title: Ai Jing My Mother and My Hometown - China Industrial Museum Solo Art Exhibition
Curators: Michel Baudson, Zhu Qingsheng
Academic hosts: Zhu Qingsheng, He Guiyan
Exhibition venue: China Industrial Museum No. 14, Weigong North Street, Tiexi District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province
Exhibition time: 2018.10.27—2019.1.27
Organizer: Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts
Co-organizers: Archives of Modern Chinese Art, Peking University, Institute of Contemporary Art, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Ai Jing Studio
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Moderator: Tian Chuan Director: Wang Yanzhu Photo: Wu Huijun Li Qiuhao Author: Wei Wenting
Editing: Design Lady, Meng Xiaodu