Jia Jia Chen

Master of Contemporary Art

My work blends a romantic fusion of blue-and-white porcelain and European ruins through sculptural assemblage, photography and video. This scenographic composition is driven by the touch of the hand and sensory experiences of textural landscapes. It is informed by the symbolic embodiment of subconscious terrains shaped by my Eastern and Western upbringing. I take inspiration from Chinese landscape painting and its inception as an internal retreat from urban existence. My fictional nostalgic journey also references abstracted Greek and Chinese myths, bodily organs and motifs drawn from my personal ceramic practice. The project alludes to the complex history of economic and cultural exchange with 'white gold,' whilst playfully exploring how objects become vessels of metaphysical projection and a holding place for history.