Image of artwork titled "Icon 2021" by aaajiao
Image of artwork titled "Icon 2021" by aaajiao
Image of artwork titled "Icon 2021" by aaajiao
of

aaajiao, Icon 2021, 2021
Screen printing, chevron board, metal frame, acrylic paint
35 × 32.6 inches

aaajiao’s Icon series explore the senses and sentiments of artist himself, a person struggling to remain mobile in his identity. The sense of identity dilemma derives from the notion of being a place-based Sinitic speaker, who seeks identity independence from his national origins and his use of language. Further influenced by recent literatures in Sinophone studies, aaajiao presents us a visual thesis about the evolution of his identity and the world he sees. It responds to his personal experience, the socio-political tension specific to Chineseness, and his dual existence on the Internet and in this world.

“I was born on the Internet, I was dead on the Internet, I was reborn on the Internet. I cannot simply hide my identity dilemma with my Internet identity. I record my identity evolution and reveal the hidden part via icons. Icon is also my way of seeing. After I experienced the gradual detachment from my racial and national identity while using the language (Chinese), my nostalgia becomes place-based. It originates in Berlin and in the cyberspace. In the same time, the community of Sinophone that comprises of Continental Colonialism, Settler Colonialism, and [Im]migration emerges before my eyes, which in here, I try to collect these landscapes in a cyberised Ukiyo-e.”
–– aaajiao

Contact

Website: gallerytabularasa.co.uk

Email: [email protected]