IB VISUAL ARTS 2023

jingman xia

The concept of this series of artworks is about self-isolation and death. The inspiration comes from my long-term mental status and study abroad experience in Australia, these two words are a summary of my two years in Australia. This series of artworks is the visualization of my psychological and situational changes. Most of the artworks are rough and represent a fearless teenager time mixed with my own experiences. The artworks are crude, ugly and inconspicuous, but they are my only, unique youth.

My journey starts with a landscape oil painting ‘17th’, this is the first artwork I made when I came to my new high school in Australia. The painting based on a photo that I took on the top of a building on my 17th birthday when I was still in lockdown in China, I wanted to jump off the building, but the fence was too high, and I couldn't find a ladder to get over it. Suddenly I looked up and saw the gentle and dreamy sky, so I survived another birthday. I chose this photo to paint as a new start for me at that time. But the collision of warm and cold colors also means that I was in a chaotic state when I just arrived in a new environment. I didn't realize at the time that this chaotic state would last throughout my whole high school life.

My second artwork is a self-portrait of another dimension of mine ‘Girl in the Mist’, the mist represents my past. I am trapped in my past, the current red sun can’t through, my eye color is the same as the sun but also can’t see through it and the current bright sky is cut off from the mist as well. It’s my long-term status since I came to Australia—sad, helpless and at a loss.

‘The Blue’ shows the dark blue as the sea, the light blue is the sky. The calm sea and sky are the embodiment of my mental state when I am immersed in the things I like. Both are cloudy because all my hobbies are quite singular, books and cinemas.

‘Isolated Island’ is where I live in Australia, it’s small, messy and silent. But I feel comfortable and safe here. So, I recorded it in its most common form - this is my small but safe island in Australia.

The fifth artwork is a group of photos of seashores and one of them was taken in the woods. I named it ‘The Outside’. I took pictures of everything I saw that was beautiful, full of natural vitality and beauty. Meanwhile, it contrasted to Isolated Island.

The sixth artwork is a post, I named it- ‘The Light Republic’, if my life were a movie, I would design the poster like this, a few things that appear in it are the epitome of my life, abandoned toys, barren grass and ceilings, boring modern elevators and exits, gradually weakening words, and last one sentence - nothing important, my love.

My linocut print is of cats that my family raised in China. I wanted to express in this work that when I was most emotionally broken, I didn’t need people, I only needed cats. Cats broke my obsession with death and self-isolation for a split second 

‘Inner’ is a series of four very fine broken ceramic bowls and represent the ways that I cannot easily show myself to others and am also very fragile. The Chinese writing in the small bowl is the reason for my self-isolation because of my hate for this world. The Chinese in the big bowl is a myth, and what I would hear when someone takes my soul to hell which would be a blessing to me.

The last group of works is called ‘Masks’. The two words on one of the masks both mean trapped in Chinese. The broken masks also means that I have been holding on to myself for a long time. The masks mean that I isolate myself, and in the end I will rot like the masks.