Who am I?

by  Shen Jingdong

Beijing Author Gallery is almost like an old friend. I’ve watched it develop and grow over the past ten years, becoming more and more professional. Now, the Author Gallery has become an excellent exhibition space and I hope to present my "Hundred Family Names" collection on one of its walls. 

The "Hundred Family Names" is an old collection of mine. I painted the characters while I also did stage art design with the Frontline Cultural and Art Corps. I was still in Nanjing at that time and the creation started in 1995 until the end of last century. Sometime in 2020, when the epidemic started, people suddenly started reflecting and contemplating about the meaning of life. So I decided to pick up this collection again, asking the old question, "Where do people come from and where do they go?" But now, my paintings of 100 family names are like a combination of candy beans, with many more festive colours than in the past. Different from the past, we are in the era of WeChat, so after painting a specific surname, I will send pictures of it to friends who have the same surname. I painted each one very slowly and very seriously. After nearly three years, I have accumulated more than a hundred surnames. I care a lot about this specific batch of 100 surnames, which have influenced my thinking about art for many years.    

“International Joke" is another one of my old collections. Since 2016, this subject has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in South Korea, China, the United States, France, and Italy. Furthermore, there are new works and new changes added every year. Last year's "International Joke" was shown in the Venice Architecture Biennale in the form of a sweeping robot plus sculpture. This year, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, I painted the "Latest International Joke" which expresses the idea of being a soldier. Additionally, I painted it against the backdrop of the Russian-Ukrainian war to express my opposition of war and wish for love and peace instead. As a former soldier, I hope to reach the target audience with this collection of works. 

"Happy Birthday Zodiac" is my latest collection. The Chinese zodiac is a Chinese folk tradition and is something every Chinese person can relate to. Therefore, I combined the 12 zodiac animals and children together and mainly used white and other colours to express a cheerful mood. Although each of these three groups has a different focus, I simply only want to express one word, love. I hope my works can relate to the current times, relate to everyone who views them, and of course, relate to you.

2022.06.14