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Shoran Jiang: From Child Prodigy to Ideas Woman

The London-based Chinese artist has received critical attention with a series of recent exhibitions that take on controversial themes in paintings of exceptional depth and beauty, writes Sajid Rizvi.

Shoran Jiang was a mere tot when she started fiddling about with drawing and paint. By the time she was a teenager Shoran was painting with a confidence and skill that college graduates would find hard to muster. Now she practices in London, where she studied for her second Masters at Chelsea, after Nankai, the old alma mater of francophile Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (Chou En-lai to most westerners).


In a number of recent London exhibitions, Shoran Jiang has experimented not only with shapes and representation but also with ideas. In one of her shows, she offered the daring concept that suicide could be a kind of empowerment -- albeit rather too late for the protagonist -- where it concerned women. 


In today's world, where the act as well as the idea of suicide carries a huge political baggage because of the all-enveloping crisis of the Middle East, Shoran Jiang invites us to look at the act of self-destruction from a different perspective.


By doing so she throws a challenge to us, the viewer. What are we supposed to make of images that are technically accomplished and beautiful to look at, and yet contain within them the seemingly outrageous idea of ultimate self-harm as an informed choice, an option just like any other, and a way of expressing? We have Shoran Jiang's argument to consider here.
It's not an unfamiliar argument but it acquires an uncanny freshness when delivered with all the visual power of a skilled painting. We are face to face, of course, with the double whammy that is represented in a woman's status in society. It seems ever so hackneyed to dwell on this, but it remains true today that women remain invisible in more ways than one and inaudible in the din of a male-dominated milieu.
For every one woman lucky enough to be visible and audible there are a few tens of millions that are neither. It's true of the West as it is of the East.

It would be a predictable error to look at Jiang's eastern cultural origins and conclude that the narrative she presents to us is somehow specific to somewhere else, some other world or worlds.
Despite the shock content of the concept, the strength of Shoran Jiang's work lies in the fact that the work is visually attractive, and therefore cleverly sublime in the delivery of its serious, thought-provoking content.

That somehow sets it apart from many other artists. 
That list includes some noteworthy artists in the West who have dealt with the subject of self-annihilation or, siimply, a departure like no other, in different forms and ways of expression.

Some of them appear to have informed if not directly influenced Shoran Jiang's work. From wrist-cutting Tracey Emin to Frieda Kahlo's self-portraiture of pain and her deeply evocative Suicide of Dorothy Hale (1939, oil on masonite) and Leonor Fini's portrayal of powerful women and submissive men, all point to parallel paths of empowerment and perilous existence.

It is by no means a coincidence that women painters that have danced with death have also been successful in self-projection (eg Emin and Kahlo) or at least vied for that hallowed existence through extraordinary lifestyles (eg Fini).
Shoran says, "Suicide is a direct way for a person to take control of their own destiny, as birth is controlled by your parents and death is controlled by nature or circumstance. However, it is a paradox that the one action that a suicidal person can take to gain control over their life is the very action that will end that life." No wonder, then, that some of the women Shoran Jiang hints at as possible inspirational sources stepped on to the precipice, only to step back stronger. Which raises the question as to whether there exists a fine line between extreme negotiation and extreme action.



In her current work on the theme of suicide Shoran Jiang chooses to paint on silk, which is neither fully opaque nor quite transparent, the stuff of female apparel, an accessory to enticement and seduction, plus much more, for example, to convey the ambiguity that emotional wounds bring to a person. The works are small-format, intimate and effective. As an ongoing project the format works well, though who knows it may lead to Shoran experimenting with larger formats to take her ideas further.

© Sajid Rizvi 2010.

Shoran Jiang Statement


Suicide is seen as taboo. The Ten Commandments, recorded in The Bible, include the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' in Exodus 20:13, which refers to both killing oneself and others. In Buddhism, it is believed that people who kill themselves will stay in hell forever and will never be reborn to a new life. However, although the subject may be taboo, when women artists represent suicide their main purpose is to make people think about the issue rather than encourage it. If the works make audiences think about why these women commit suicide and how they became emotionally wounded, then the works can be seen as successful. This is also my primary intention. 
I am trying to represent women's points of view, so in my own work I choose to look at methods of suicide that have been common among women, such as cutting wrists (which Emin tried and filmed), drowning (which Fini painted), jumping (which Kahlo created) and hanging and poisoning. All of these methods have been written on by Freud.
Suicide is a direct way for a person to take control of their own destiny, as birth is controlled by your parents and death is controlled by nature or circumstance. However, it is a paradox that the one action that a suicidal person can take to gain control over their life is the very action that will end that life.
An important creative choice for me was the material I would work with. I selected semitransparent silk which allows me to create two layers in my paintings and allow the works to be seen from both sides. Silk is a thin, soft and elegant material, widely used in fashion, which can be regarded as a symbol of women and femininity. The character of silk reflects my true feelings about women who have emotional wounds. The layers of silk allow me to show that you cannot always see the pain of an experience on the outside of a person. The woman who is suffering may use some 'fake words' to cover their true stories and emotions, and in my painting I use masks to symbolize this hidden side. Butterflies are the symbol of rebirth. I use blood in an obscure way to show that the wounds are also in their heart.

I understand that women's traumas, suicide and destiny taken together is a profound and vast subject, which prompts me to explore more in the future.

Shoran Jiang: Life and Art
EDUCTION
2008-2009 Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of Arts London Master of Arts in Fine Art.
2005-2007 Nankai University, China, Master of Arts in Fine Art.
2001-2005 Nkai University, China, Bachelor of Arts in Drawing.
PUBLICATION
2007 Art Critique titled Li Yifeng Art Works Market Situation Analyse published in Chinese Painting Character. 
2006 Art Critique titled New Style of Ancientry published in Chinese Painting Character. 
2006 Translated and edited article about Xu Bing and published on Orient Art: Finance and Economics.
2005 'Embellishment Design'. 
2005 'Panoply and Embroidery Design'. 
2004 Created illustrations for 'Guuiver's Travels' 'Around the World in 80 Days'.
2003 'Waiting' has been recorded in 'National Artistic Higher Education Students' Paintings Yearbook'.
2002 Selected literature works 'Deep Breath In Four Season' was published.
2002 Selected literature works 'Pattern Girl' and 'Lonely Sound' were published.
2001 Selected literature works 'The Tree Beyond the Campus'.
AWARD
2007 National Art University Graduate Excellent Works Nominated Exhibition, Third Class. 
2005 Excellent Gradate of 2005. 
2005 Bachelor degree thesis 'Chinese Painting Concepts in the Carpet Design picture of the Modern Foreign Firms'.
EMPLOYMENT
2008-present Chinese Readers Digest Journal, artistic editor. 
2007 The Academy of Chinese Culture, teacher.
2004 The Joy English Language Training Institution English teacher.
2003-2005 'Family and Children Care' Magazine, artistic editor.
EXHIBITION
2009 CONDENSATION 2009 Exhibition. 
2007 National Art University Graduate Excellent Works Nominated Exhibition. 
2007 MA Fine Art Degree Show.

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