Jewellery & Metal (MA)
Jing Chang
Starting my artistic practice at the age of 26, I studied jewellery design at the China University of Geosciences(Wuhan) and have since worked within the field of contemporary jewellery. My practice mostly explores interactive and conceptual works. Two years later, I came to the Royal College of Art to undertake advanced study and started a deeper exploration through my practice in RCA’s collaborative and intensely artistic atmosphere.
Prior to this I completed a BA in Electronic and Information Engineering and a MA in Communication and Information System at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. During this time, I focused on product development and interactive design, won the Baidu Product Design Competition and worked as a product designer at Baidu(Beijing). After graduation, I worked as an engineer and an instructor at China Telecom(Beijing Company) and studied psychology at the China Academy of Sciences (Psychology Institute).
Throughout my journey as an evolving artist, my interdisciplinary experience has helped a lot, especially as it has given me the ability to see and think from multiple perspectives. My practice involves various forms of media including; photography, image-making, video, object, glass and metal. Conceptually my work explores wide ranging topics and reactions to contemporary culture including; feminism, the intersections of different cultures, the interactions between people and objects, the complexity and subtlety in intimacy and the uncertainty in contemporary life.
For me, each work represents a thorough reflection. It usually starts with my experience and empathy, but through in-depth research and practice, it gradually intersects with history, culture and society.
These wide ranging concerns and responses are brought together in my work, and at the same time reflect the true state of contemporary life, massive information, experience and emotion come simultaneously through multiple channels.
The Second Foot, 2020
The Second Foot, Research images
The Second Foot, Experiment: sketches, wax and gauze
In the book ‘Ornamentalism’ by Anne Anlin Cheng, Cheng stated that ‘the yellow woman’ tends to make progress in acceptance and endurance. Although I would use ‘Asian woman’ rather than ‘yellow woman’’. Through my practice I agree with that the cultural influence of being within the Confucian circle carries greater significance than skin colour. Cheng’s view explains why the aggressiveness of western feminism is so lacking in its support in Asia and is basically consistent with my observations and experiences.
In my opinion, this paradox; desiring independence whilst bearing and fitting in with current conventions, is actually a strategy and a wisdom for Asian women. Learning from our traditional culture, the loss of pace in the feminist movement of recent decades and the extensive misogyny in Asia, women are finding alternative means of resistance where fighting directly and aggressively does not work. So beneath the smooth and beautiful exterior, they look for their way, like an Ornamentalist resistance.
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Medium:
GlassSize:
90*90*160mm
Self-Reflection, 2020
Self Reflection, Holding the watch; Photographed by Lunhua Kong
The watch has become an almost obsolete product and for this reason it has been my choice to work with this form in this project. The physical act of checking one’s watch is a complex moment which connects a physical demonstration of time to our own subjective conscious awareness of time. In today’s atomized contemporary society, the general sense of time is weakened and our individuality is foregrounded. Inner time becomes more important and each introspection could be a critical turning point.
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Medium:
BronzeSize:
40*20*60mm
Nostalgia-Mom, Frame, 2019 — Material: photo, paper, plastic frame; Size: 130*100*200mm
Nostalgia-Mom, Video screenshots
She plays four roles in her life; daughter, wife, mother and worker. I have shared those roles to some extent. In the quarrels we had as I tried to state my independence, her desire for me to act as her doppelgangers was withering.
Printed photos, which can be easily copied, show the absurdity of such multiple roles and doppelgangers when one has lost oneself. Every time a given role shows up, a fake ‘her’ appears. Through this short film, I try to present the intertwining of her roles, her desire for doppelgangers, my projections on her and our complex emotions.
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Medium:
Paper, plastic frame, image, soundSize:
130*100*200mm, 2’23’’
Nostalgia-Moon, Video screenshots
Nostalgia-Moon, Poem, 2020
Out-of-focus is a process of adjustment to in-focus. Each time of refocusing, there will be blurring during the adjustment period. This visual blurring addresses a sense of ‘in between’, the sense of anxiety and uncertainty in contemporary life especially for people who grew up in rapidly changing countries.
In the time of continuous refocusing and continuous experiencing out-of-focus, the poem and the moon that exist in an eternal way have become my heart anchor.
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