News: Discovering Happiness in Beijing

Art is meant to make you think, make you question, make you experience beauty and in very simple way, meant to make you happy. At least, that is what the non-profit art project Fantasia – Journey of Discovering Happiness believes. The project launched in 2006 chooses one prominent artist each year to complete an art program around the theme of happiness.
 
On June 24th, 2009, the fourth Happiness project was launched in Beijing with artist Jiang Jie at the helm. Her plan entitled, Thousands of Faces and Thousands of Perspectives was completed over the course of the year and included a series of interviews with well-known painters, musicians, poets, directors, philosophers and scholars who all spoke about how their work relates to the concept of happiness. Jiang Jie’s resulting solo exhibition entitled Pink Utopia will be held at the Beyond Art Space in Beijing from June 8th until July 8th.

Jiang Jie is a female artist who has unique perspective towards the environment and ecology. In her works, we can sense her views of space, building, tradition and reality. One of Jiang Jie’s greatest strength is her capability of using a variety of materials in his works. In recent years, she frequently uses silk, cotton and paper to demonstrate the sharp contrast between these material and modern space and buildings. In a sense, this practice reflects her attitudes towards art and the reality.

The artist decorates the gallery with pink silk bags filled with black tiles. The roof ornamented with pink silk makes the place filled with Utopian romance. Under each tile, there is a story and a piece of memory. It reflects happiness, cheer, difficulty or sorrow. All of them are vividly recorded by the titles in the pink bags.

 
Beyond Art Space
798 East Street, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015, China
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