China

Hu Xiaoyuan’s works are characterized by a sensitive choice of art forms. In her installations and paintings, artistic themes are often expressed in a more concrete and specific way, escaping from the dialectical debate of meanings and ideas, and are filled with those delicate feelings she draws from everyday objects.

Hu’s early creations included Mine (2004), A Keepsake I Cannot Give Away (2005-2006), and Those Times (2006) which was invited to the 12th Documenta Kassels. Elements such as hair, worn cloth and braille, which appear in Hu’s works, are very emotional and personal carriers in themselves. Rational pursuit of art forms and underlying warm feelings are both embedded in her works. From 2008, Hu started to consciously drift away from her previous approach by creating the Summer Solstice and Wood series and she became gravitated toward re-examining the state and form of substance in an obviously more calm tone of language. Such transition is, in some sense, unexpected.

If Those Times is a representation of feminine, warm and emotional expression, then her later installations and videos, are more clear-cut and straightforward. Her visual expressions become mature, relaxed with very distinctive personal style. In I don't know how long you've been walking on, and I don't know where you're going, aside of the close “keeping up” of “purposelessness”, the folds in the clothing are seen as the object itself. Here, the significance of objects is dramatically emphasized.