Otherworld - Over Yonder

Otherworld - Over Yonder, created by Xiang Jing in 2011, is part of the Otherworld sub-series, and the only work in the series to introduce human imagery. In two sub-series within Will Things Ever Get Better? —the Otherworld and Mortals series—Xiang Jing purposefully made the following distinctions: the Otherworld series, which depicts animal imagery, is a metaphor for humans’ natural character, and the Mortals series, which depicts acrobatic imagery, is a metaphor for humans’ social character. As such, perhaps Otherworld - Over Yonder can be regarded as the central theme that joins the two vastly different sub-series together.

The Otherworld series makes up a utopia displaying humans’ “natural” character, or “otherworld,” where various animal figures all had their own hidden metaphors. Xiang Jing conceptualizes a certain reciprocal relationship in which human’s natural character depicted in the Otherworld series and humans’ social character depicted in the Mortals series shields one another: natural character refers to those qualities easily obscured or hidden by society, the essence of men true to the heart deep down; and social character refers to the socialized inherent quality that makes people follow rules with caution. It comes from society’s constant ruling and punishment of humans’ social character, thus obscuring humans’ natural character.

Otherworld - Over Yonder not only aims to simply reiterate the popular ecological discourse, but it also attempts to enlighten, pinpointing the inherent relationships between people, people and society, and people and nature. In this piece of work, the indefinitely long arm of the young girl attempts to reach the “yonder” puppy. In other words, the young girl and the puppy are “yonder” to each other. For this Xiang Jing opted to use two different materials in sculpting the indefinitely extending arm of the young girl—her upper arm has the same material as her body (fiberglass with acrylic paint) while her forearm and the part extending to the puppy has the same material as the puppy (transparent resin painted with coloring power mixed with glue). Through the transitioning of the two materials on the disfigured arm of the young girl, Xiang Jing attempts to deliver a certain concept of mixing with each other, and serving as “yonder” for each other: even though “nature loves to hide,” humans’ inherent quality cannot expose itself explicitly, and is easily lost in social circumstances; however, in the process of being “yonder” to one another and trying to reach an “arrival” to each other, people in essence are approaching each other indefinitely while never reaching each other.

This metaphor coincides with German Christian thinker Martin Buber’s elucidation of the relationship of “you and me” between god and humans. But Xiang Jing’s metaphor does not presume the relationship between person and person (or by extension, person and society) to be a two-dimensional construct where one serves as the subject and the other the object. It is instead a state of being “yonder” to each other yet approaching indefinitely and blending into each other: “you and me” both are turning back and looking at each other, finding each other, forever longing for the arrival to the other side, hence often neglecting our own place. But “you and me” encompasses the relationships between men and nature, the world and others, like that described by Martin Buber: “I” look at “you” as if I’m looking at myself, and “I” reach “you” just like I reach myself.

(written by Mao Zhu)