Lin Jingjing 林菁菁 is a conceptual visual artist whose work deals primarily with social-political themes. She is known for the wide range of approaches in her art, explores the depths of social and personal identity in the context of modern society, often examining themes such as confusion and quest, existence and absence, constraint and resistance through a lens of paradox. Of particular focus is how individuals define themselves amongst the effects of the outside world,vis-à-vis culture, politics, history and the economy. Her artwork spans performance, installation, painting, mixed media, video, sound, LED lights. The surreal effect created via this method immerses the viewers into another consciousness.
In “Promise for Your Happiness“, she would like to provoking people to think about the paradoxical reality and the virtual illusion that we all experience every day, as well as the sense of geographical belonging and the new generation of 'mental orphans'. Her purpose is to doubt promises and their persistence, arguing their importance in today's society and how we all must find the possible in the impossible through skepticism. Lin Jingjing’s oeuvre is exemplified by these types of mixed media works; embroidered colourful cotton threads that impose geometric patterns over reproduced monochromatic photographs of life in China. Careful stitches conceal segments of the composition, such as the face or shadow of a human figure, seeking to address issues of homogenization and the individual morphing into a component of the economic machine.
Jingjing ’s works have been exhibited in major public museums including Neues Kunstforum in Cologne(Germany), the National Art Museum of Chile in Santiago, the Long Museum in Shanghai, the Ivam in Valencia(Spain), the Kunstraum in Vienna, Galeria Herold in Bremen, Saint Mary’s University Art Museum in Halifax(Canada), the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery in Philadelphia, Ljubljana Castle in Slovenia, the Tikanoja Art Museum in Vaasa (Finland), the Nanjing Museum, the Du Land Modern Art Museum (Shanghai) and Song Zhuang Art Museum in Beijing.
More information:• www.linjingjing.org• Dr Monica Merlin’s interview of Lin Jingjing on Tate’s website
