Jing Zhou
LandE scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW of Chinese philosophies has shaped my thinking and conduct. The prudent and contrary-minded Taoist beliefs, the attached-to-the-earth reality of Confucianism, and the sudden enlightenment and intuitive insights of Zen( aka Ch’ an in Chinese) are the foundation of my life. On the other hand, Western culture has inspired me and opened new ways of thinking after moving to the U. S. for 18 years. My understanding and appreciation for both cultures has no doubt given me the ability to see the connections and differences between the two. This experience enriched my passion for art making and critical thinking to solve aesthetic problems.
You are a versatile artist: marked out with a multidisciplinary nature, your approach accomplishes the difficult task of creating and amplifying specific interactions between different mediums. The results convey together a coherent sense of unity, that rejects any conventional classification. Before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http:// www. jingzhoustudio. net in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: while walking our readers through your process, we would like to ask you if you have you ever happened to realize that such multidisciplinary approach is the only way to express and convey the idea you explore.
I started to realizing my multidisciplinary approach in 2008. By that time, I have taught in academia for four years after many years of working as a graphic designer. I began to have the freedom to explore different art media and catch up on reading. I think that each visual art medium has a unique“ voice” to express thoughts, which is similar to music instruments. In many cases, certain ideas and feelings are best visualized in a particular medium. To me, the medium— the means— is not as important as the messages in the artwork— the ends; the means serves the end. Therefore it is the message that matters most. The media or medium used in the artwork is like a messenger; the better quality the messenger offers, the more successful the meaning of the artwork is expressed. So to answer your question, although I don’ t know if the multidisciplinary approach is the only way to convey my ideas, it is certainly so far the best way that I have experienced to express my thoughts and feelings.
For this special edition of LandEscape we have selected Dimensions of Light, an extremely interesting cross disciplinary