OOOIT Art / In the Fold of the Infinite – een solotentoonstelling van Jiang Zhaojin
OOOIT Art / In the Fold of the Infinite – een solotentoonstelling van Jiang Zhaojin
In Jiang Zhaojin’s work, the landscape is no longer constructed from ink, but from patches of denim that have been pierced, washed, and folded. These fabrics originally came from the assembly lines of the globalised garment industry, repeatedly consumed, discarded, and reduced to anonymous objects within the cycle of fast fashion. In her hands, however, the folds, fraying, seams, and tears are re-read as the contours of mountain ranges, the movement of clouds and mist, the flow of water; traces of unknown bodies acquire a new warmth and settle like the texture of a landscape. Mass-produced, consumed, and discarded goods are given new life—regaining the dignity to shift from “object” back to “being”.
Jiang Zhaojin grew up in the mountains of southwestern China, while her mother worked far away in a garment factory. The denim garments she sent home served for years as the sole emotional connection between mother and daughter. Denim is thus not merely a material, but a nexus of industrial systems, female labor, and intimate relationships. Years later, although trained in traditional Chinese painting, she still chooses denim—not only as a material, but also as a metaphor. When she cuts, collages, and sews these fabrics today, she recalibrates the place of personal experience and affective labor. The quiet elegance of traditional literati painting merges with the raw tactility of industrialisation into landscapes of mountains and rivers, opening up new paths for the contemporary expression of Chinese shan shui painting.
In Jiang Zhaojin’s work, the landscape is no longer constructed from ink, but from patches of denim that have been pierced, washed, and folded. These fabrics originally came from the assembly lines of the globalised garment industry, repeatedly consumed, discarded, and reduced to anonymous objects within the cycle of fast fashion. In her hands, however, the folds, fraying, seams, and tears are re-read as the contours of mountain ranges, the movement of clouds and mist, the flow of water; traces of unknown bodies acquire a new warmth and settle like the texture of a landscape. Mass-produced, consumed, and discarded goods are given new life—regaining the dignity to shift from “object” back to “being”.
Jiang Zhaojin grew up in the mountains of southwestern China, while her mother worked far away in a garment factory. The denim garments she sent home served for years as the sole emotional connection between mother and daughter. Denim is thus not merely a material, but a nexus of industrial systems, female labor, and intimate relationships. Years later, although trained in traditional Chinese painting, she still chooses denim—not only as a material, but also as a metaphor. When she cuts, collages, and sews these fabrics today, she recalibrates the place of personal experience and affective labor. The quiet elegance of traditional literati painting merges with the raw tactility of industrialisation into landscapes of mountains and rivers, opening up new paths for the contemporary expression of Chinese shan shui painting.
Translated automatically ·