Xin Qi

Xin Qi

China

 

Born in Fujian, now based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Xin Qi graduated from the Department of Ceramics at China Academy of Art in 2006 and received his master’s degree from the Department of Sculpture at China Academy of Art in 2015.

As a generation who migrated and sojourned with their parents, Xin Qi has a vague concept of hometown. The theme of his work focuses more on individual experience in the changing era and the interpersonal relationship in the present. His work integrates photography, digital painting, textile technology and other art forms, often exhibiting a lonely, witty, and solemn quality.

 

Urban Latitude

Photograph, digital painting, embroidery, synthetical fiber material

600 × 120 cm

2022

 

The construction site is opposite my residence. For years, stacking, striking, drilling, and hoisting, various construction workers who wear similar overalls and helmets have been working here, bustling around the unfinished buildings day after day. Standing in front of it, I see myself as a spectator, a weaver, and an archiver.

Unconsciously, the construction site in the camera lens turns into a continuing organism: interlaced scaffolds and buildings wrapped within become alive, where buildings transform in the workers’ diligent effort constantly, and evolve their structure and façade slowly but ceaselessly. Gradually they weave a solemn and vivid picture of life. Meanwhile, they don’t belong here and won’t exist after the construction is done. This doomed separation adds some desolation to this picture.

The scaffolds embroidered with gold, warning signs, cranes interweave with rough walls, renovated façades, buildings in the distance, and all these create a city silhouette of interlaced light and shadow and a sprawling complex.  

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