Aroma 2014 N0.8

XU HUALING
1975 Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province
Received master’s degree in Chinese painting at Central Academy of Fine Arts China
Currently lives in Beijing and works in Central Academy of Fine Arts

Although Xu Hualing majored in traditional Chinese painting, she has always showed up as a contemporary artist in people’s vision. The contemporariness of Xu Hualing’s works is mainly embodied in two aspects, one is digestion and transformation of lines, the other is elimination and reconstruction of visual experience.
From a student of high school affiliated to Academy of Fine Arts to a teacher in China Central Academy of Fine Arts, the basic modeling and performance techniques of this Academy are fully embodied in Xu Hualing’s works. She adopts “hidden trunks” technique to paint human bodies. Wi thout the frame of lines and with layers of halo, the character body shows a dim and light feature. Xu Hualing always attaches great importance to female body and privacy. What intrigues her more is young girls’ unconsciously showed sex appeal. From the “Aroma” series, in the works of Xu Hualing, there have been less and less female facial depictions, and she turned to present partial bodies of female instead. In the “Between” series, double images superposition eliminates the space relationship between human body and the background, creating transparent and illusory beauty. But there are also some individual works, such as “Embroidery - leg”, that put aside the halo and simply adopt lines to show the theme of embroidery which is closely related to women, tracking a completely different art exploration.
Xu Hualing’s works also express her attitude to visual language. As an active participant in contemporary art, the use of image resources goes throughout in Xu Hualing’s creation experience. The superposition of silk painting and picture composes double space and enables images to create more possibilities. The visual image is presented in an open manner. Take the “Between” as an example, the work consists of two layers. The upper layer is hand-painted human dress on silk, and the lower layer is a photo of sofa. In the “silk and shadow” type of visual superposition of painting and picture, the meaning of images is blurred but the message conveyed is more abundant. The super-positioned painting and picture images create double spaces which breakthrough their original meanings, making audiences completely getting rid of their past viewing experience and produce a new visual experience which is more open.
In the decomposition and reconstruction of traditional Chinese painting viewing experience, Xu Hualing provides us with an opportunity to have a new understanding of Chinese paintings. Xu Hualing, combining traditional techniques, international aesthetic, feminine angle of view and contemporary thinking, gives new luster to meticulous figure paintings.
—Yang Zhige