MenLo is a studio and gallery focused on growing the international artist community in Jingdezhen, providing access to the city for aspiring ceramic artists, and amplifying young and emerging Chinese contemporary artists in any medium. As a studio we are committed to working in an integrated way with the city, its artisans, and its industry. As a gallery we do not have representational relationships with artists, we facilitate making, and try to find the work done in our studio homes in various galleries, museums, and other venues around China. 


Ji Xiaotong - Mature Confusion. June - July 2018

                           




Artists Statement on the work

“Maturity has been signified in various ways across eras and cultures.  As such maturity includes multiple characteristic appearances. General maturity is most often displayed through the relationship between oneself and others and through their interaction with the world. Becoming mature is shifting from exclusive self interest to prioritizing more the collective. A person who has undergone this maturing process becomes objective, rational, and controllable. This is a process which alleviates the pull of emotion. Emotions, from birth, are an essential part of a human identity outside of maturity. The process of becoming mature puts the nature of being human and the desire to be rational into opposition and raises a question about how to keep the two states unified.

Color on the other hand always retains its original emotional character. That is the reason I am fascinated by color within photography. Nowadays colors are not only sourced from the physical world, but the digital one as well. In modern society we are surrounded by new colors and emotions, creating an ever more chaotic circumstance in which to grow up. Keeping aware of our inner selves on our path to maturity is more and more difficult. The 28 pieces of work in this exhibition aim to illustrate four periods of maturity through which we need to throw ourselves. Discovery, exploration, doubt, and at last acceptance are shown. Our bodies refresh themselves cellularly on a seven year cycle. As such I’ve represented each of these four periods with seven images. It’s a pleasure to exhibit this work at age 28, as a present for myself, with all of you as witness.”


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