Ai Jing Returns

For people who listened to the song "My 1997" from the 1990s, the name "Ai Jing" is like a remote marker from their childhood or youth buried deeply in their memory. The once popular avant-garde ballad singer has been out of public sight for almost 10 years.

But the long-time dreariness was not for nothing. For Ai, it was like seeking nirvana or the rise of a phoenix and rewarded her with a better way to demonstrate her talent. But this time, it's not about music.

On November 19, the National Museum of China kicked off an art exhibition called I Love Ai Jing. It includes nearly 200 pieces of her works created in the past 10 years and covers paintings, sculptures, installations, video works and more. For her music fans, it is a good chance to know the different dimensions of Ai; those just getting to know her can learn about her achievements in music.

All about love

When asked by Global Times about the main feature of her work, Ai Jing simply said, "Love."

It's almost self-evident. The word "love" is at the tip of everyone's tongue, but probably only through Ai's works can you realize that it has such varied expressions. The English word runs through the whole exhibition, knitted in colorful tapestry, painted on different sizes of canvas, and engraved in heavy metal.

Since her first exhibition in 2008 in Beijing, Ai has been creating works with love as the theme. The show this time focuses on her love for the homeland and her hometown after traveling around the world for years.

The various forms of contemporary art, Ai tried her best to exploit the centuries-old common emotion of humanity. She shows her love for mothers through the work "My Mom and My Hometown," which consists of a six-meter wide and 16-meter long tapestry full of the word "love" and a knitting sculpture based on the image of her mother.

The tapestry was knitted by over 50 people in all, including Ai's mother, her relatives, friends and neighbors from Shenyang, Liaoning Province. The knitting yarns are from cast sweaters and underpants. The work, which reflects geographical features of the north of China, shows Ai's deep feelings for her hometown.

Ai also shows her concern and love for the environment, for peace, and for life generally. In a painting named "Gun and Roses," she wrote line after line of the word "love" to cover French photographer Marc Riboud's "The Flower and the Bayonet" taken in 1967 in a Washington peace march against the Vietnam war.

"I want to dialogue with history through works," Ai told Global Times, "It is about a historical event, similar to my song 'My 1997.'"

She also explores the depth of Chinese culture. Inspired by Chinese tea culture, she made 64 black and white chessmen of red copper for the installation "Pieces." Clothed by metal and modernization, the essence of Oriental culture they represent can endow the audience with the coolness of Buddhism, she said.

Learning a new language

Visiting the exhibition, people would not be able to forget Ai Jing's other identity as a singer. On one piece, Ai painted a girl playing guitar, against the music score of the song "My 1997," which made her famous across China in the 1990s. She was regarded as the "contemporary female ballad poet" and a leading folk singer.

But Ai gradually faded out of the music circle, particularly after 1998 when her song "Made in China" failed to pass censorship. Though she occasionally appeared in some activities and has produced songs since then, her focus turned to contemporary art. As she said, when she could no longer express herself through music, the best solution was to find "another language."

She started to learn painting in 1999 from Zhang Xiaogang, a renowned Chinese contemporary artist. Ai lived in New York for years and traveled widely to enrich her cultural experiences by visiting galleries, art institutions, and auction houses. Since 2007, she began to participate in important art exhibitions as a visual artist and has held three exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai and New York. After her exhibition in New York in 2009 her work started to become widely known and catch the eye of collectors.

In her book Ai on the Way published in 2004, she wrote that she was fond of painting as a child, but she thought music was a better way for her to express herself at that time. She once said, after more than 10 years, painting has opened another gate for her, one with richer colors.

As the first singer to hold several art exhibitions in China, Ai's transition to visual artist hasn't happened without raising some eyebrows. She was once called a "beginner" in art after spending 10 years learning, and some say she is just using her former fame to create a ripple. But such doubts do not seem to affect Ai. To her, visual art is simply an extension of her creation along with music. "Arts are all linked," she told Global Times.

In her creation of visual art, Ai incorporates her talent and emotion in music, which are particularly reflected in works with love as their theme. She said she would not give up music, admitting it continues to whirl in her mind while painting.

Pointing to her works "Gun and Roses" and "I Love Heavy Metal," she explained that they are inspired from the music world that other artists probably would not notice. "If you look carefully, you will see that these works are more or less linked to the music I have done and been familiar with."

Pure and blunt

Ai Jing is the first contemporary artist to hold an exhibition in the National Museum since it reopened last year. In the opening ceremony, Chen Lüsheng, the curator of the exhibition and the vice director of the museum, explained why the museum chose Ai Jing's works.

"The works show the diversified aspects of Chinese contemporary art. Unlike (other) critical and gloomy styles, Ai's works are created from the angle of love, which is most difficult today," he said, adding that Ai managed to integrate internationalized contemporary art forms with local family affection.

He pointed out that Ai might not be the most famous contemporary artist, but she is one of the warmest ones as can be seen through the demonstration of love and hope in her works, which could provide comfort for the audience.

To Chen, her work is straightforward and special. Ai agreed that her work is pure and blunt. "I come from music and I put more emphasis on the direct feeling of the audiences," she said.

As many viewers observe, Ai's work boasts affective communication and humanistic care besides regular thoughtful visual demonstration. Curator Zhu Qi once said conceptual art is just the surface of Ai's painting: "The essence of her work is communication between souls."

For many of Ai's friends in the art circle in New York, Ai, who has engaged in several fields of art, is like the Yoko Ono of China. Many Chinese media also compare her with Yoko Ono as she expands exploration in contemporary art.

"I don't think I could be compared to a woman like Yoko Ono, who has influenced John Lennon," Ai told Global Times, "We are from different times and cultural backgrounds."