Artists Work On Sand Sculptures At Sand Museum In Japan (Photo : Getty Images)
In a country where the regulators heavily censor everything from political news to art, a woman sculptor is daring in making statues that depict female nudity, including their private parts.
In November, Xiang Jing held in Beijing “Upon This Anguish I Repose + New Work S” which was a retrospective exhibition of her works from 1995 through 2011 and 2012 through 2016, Global Times reported. The works exhibited included “Your Body,” a 2.7-meter-high sculpture she made in 2005 and “The Open,” a 3.6-meter-high sculpture she made the following year.
Nude Female Sculptures
These two statues featured hairless nude women that sat with their legs spread wide open, while their large painted eyes are staring at passersby. She also has other smaller female sculptures that are also bald and hollow-eyed which, according to art critics, reflect the bodies of Chinese women.
However, while crafting these statues, Xiang admitted she resented it when people labeled her works as feminist. However, she conceded that her sculptures successfully rendered something which many women in China confront. Xiang blamed people being encoded by culture for considering displays of female nudity and genitalia in public as either erotic or not appropriate.
Purpose of Sculptures
She made those pieces to decode or restore social stereotypes people have been raised to believe. Xiang stressed that nude female sculptures are universal, or something that both genders experience and could have sympathy with. Xiang likewise makes animal images which she explained are also reflections of human beings.
From her low-profile during the 1990s, Xiang has become a favorite artist with her works, such as “Are a Hundred Playing You? Or Only One?,” made in 2007, selling for 6.27 million yuan ($0.9 million) in 2010 which created a new record for mainland China sculptors.
In early December, Xiang Jing and Qu Guangci, a renowned artist in China, exhibited their work at the Le Meridien Hotels & Resort, part of the Marriott Group. The two artists founded X+Q, a Chinese art collective.
