Tan Jing, born in 1992 in Guangdong Province, China, currently resides in Guangzhou. She graduated from Chelsea College of Arts and Royal College of Art in London, UK. She now lives and works in Jingdezhen and Shenzhen.
Tan Jing’s works have been exhibited at institutions such as the Shanghai Bund Art Museum, Guangzhou Huangbian Contemporary Art Research Center, Beijing X Art Museum, Hong Kong Parasite, Guangdong Times Museum, and the Basel Toy World Museum.
Tan Jing specializes in exploring the forms of individual materials and the nature of the materials themselves.
Her works are always based on light inspiration, imagination, biology, Chinese traditional folklore.
The material properties of the real world, and Tan Jing’s unique personal expression.
Her artistic practice mainly involves sculpture and multimedia installations.
After that she excels in using materials such as scents, glass, and biological secretions.
Her creative inspiration often blends personal history, biology, folklore, and magical elements to distill unique emotional experiences and insights. Tan Jing enjoys experimenting with materials in specific environments to evoke sensory experiences and communication on objects.
She explores how the sensations in the realm of imagination can flow out and allow viewers to enter the same virtual space through imaginative forms of communication.
In other words, sensitive to life but not fragile.
For instance Tan Jing’s art often focuses on the subtle emotions and traumas within individuals.
Therefore she utilizes the efficacy of objects or spaces in her expressions, creating impacts on viewers aesthetically or psychologically.
Tan Jing’s grandparents returned to China from Thailand in the 1950s. As a result as a family member, Tan Jing often feels their struggles with identity and sense of belonging.
Perhaps it is the societal constraints under patriarchy that have given rise to such pain.where any mention or encounter with pain is sensitive and fragile, and pain arises from contradictions.
Firstly,Tan Jing’s artistic language also encompasses contradictions.
Secondly, hers artistic language always fragility to express that subtle pain.
And more by combining self-expression with the characteristics of materials, she subtly distorts the historical narrative of people’s pain.
Tan Jing: Axiong Ran Away
Tan Jing’s work “Axiong Ran Away” is an exploration of individual identity consciousness. Her grandparents were overseas Chinese from Thailand who returned to China in the 1950s. The fluidity of identity is vividly reflected in this context, and under the fluid identity.where should people turn for their sense of identity and belonging? There is no answer; we can only immerse ourselves in the feelings.
“Axiong” is a character created by Tan Jing based on her grandfather’s image. In 1956, Tan Jing’s grandfather left Thailand and settled in China.
In the four-channel video installation “Hot Dream Corner” completed in the summer of 2023.
Tan Jing began to visit family members and dispersed Chinese in Bangkok, Thailand, recording stories told by the elderly.
In the film, these fading memories intertwine in different languages, interspersing dialogues from the past, future, and present world, forming a unique narrative of the film. Light and shadow penetrate through four screens of different textures, opening a “window” to the corner of dreams.
In the world of art creation, artists often wander between the realms of artistic space and imaginative space, drawing inspiration from intangible thoughts to create unique works. Emotions flow and pour out like tides in this process, turning into deep emotional imprints within the artwork, touching the hearts of viewers. Materials serve as the medium through which artists express emotions, imbued with new life and meaning through the skill and creativity of the artist, becoming a bridge that connects the artist and the audience. The combination of artistic space, imaginative space, emotional flow and outflow, and materials forms an infinitely possible world in art creation, allowing people to wander in the ocean of art, experiencing endless beauty and profundity.
