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“Work by Day and Night”

QingQing is a self-taught artist who once drove tractors in the countryside, practiced Chinese traditional medicine, owned a restaurant and worked abroad before applying her skills to art ten years ago. Born in 1953, she is not just an artist lost within her world of surreal images and creations; rather she plays many roles in her artistic career-a common practice among her contemporaries.

A snapshot of the past two months in QingQing's world is a statement about the ambitious and multifunctional nature of an artist in Beijing.  When visiting her home/studio this past November, she announced a solo-exhibition in Tokyo for her recent delicate garments woven from hemp and dried flowers. I was surprised to find that her studio was hardly filled with these beautiful materials but was cluttered with found objects resembling discarded computer parts, toy dinosaurs, baby dolls and glass trinkets-components for her installation art that features charming and ghastly theatrical scenes of an enchanted wonderland both. These other works are currently in another show partially organized by the artist.*

While greeting clients in her studio and preparing these ready-made dioramas and digital media light boxes for exhibition, QingQing also published a retrospective. Within six weeks, Enchanted Paradise was created under the supervision of the artist; the 200-page full-colour publication features essays solicited from local curators, in addition to 20 examples of her own prose.

The night before her December opening, QingQing was still arranging her works and orchestrating the final details of her art/book/sales/exhibition like the director of her own gallery/life.  She is full with the grace of a woman yet loaded with the ambition of an active Beijing artist.  As an installation (and performance) artist/ publisher/ writer/ organizer, she is merely one among many feverishly working in the consuming consumer culture of China today.

* Secret Light: Installation works by QingQing Dayaolu Workshop, 798 Art District, Chaoyang (Until January 8)