BE
Jiang Jie
October 16th 2003 – April 15 2004
Jiang Jie, BE , 2001; Fibreglass, 200 cm x 160 cm x 130 cm (without base)
Artist Statement
"Babies are the starting point of my artwork", states Chinese artist Jiang Jie. Being a Chinese woman of child-bearing age, this is not surprising. The Chinese one-child policy, started in 1956, was an ambitious population control program that used propaganda, social pressure, and in some cases, coercion to influence its citizens. The government rewarded those who observed the policy and penalized those who did not. Couples with only one child were given a "certificate"- entitling them to such benefits as cash bonuses, longer maternity leave, better child-care, and preferential housing. In return they would pledge not to have more children. Naturally, babies themselves become a symbol for this controversial program.
"My first work, exhibited in 1994, called Breakable Objects, revealed the fragile condition of infants… pure, innocent, fragile, vulnerable and unable to self-defend. The work at the Toronto Sculpture Garden, entitled BE went a little bit further, combining a baby's face and an adult's smile." This critical juxtaposition implies something beyond a child's experience, suggesting a universality that transcends the limitations of age. In BE, the baby's face expresses inquisitive hope and yearning for the future and a palpable sense of puzzlement and fear. " Babies have things they won't say and we adults couldn't understand."
The work produces a disturbing disruption of well-worn historical narratives, stories of opposition: adult vs. child, east vs. west, man vs. woman; its unseeing glass eyes are fixed mutely on the past, its features drawn in innocent anticipation of the future.
Text by Nancy Campbell
