The One in My Dreams - Qiao Niang 1

The series of The One in My Dreams is on the theme of female ghosts, mainly from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio ("聊斋志异", Liaozhai zhiyi), and also including Su Xiaoxiao from Anecdotes of West Lake (“西湖拾遗”, Xihu shiyi). The narrative of this series continues that of Seven Nights, while the using of the album as the format and the juxtaposition of images and texts respond to her previous series Migrations of Memory. The series of Seven Nights is inspired by dreams of Peng Wei and her female friend. And it also relates to an interaction between women in the real world, that is, Peng’s conversation and correspondence with Prof. Judith Zeitlin, a scholar on female ghosts in Chinese literature. The series of Migrations of Memory is an observation, study, assimilation and violation of multiple traditions. It seems to be smooth, but challenges the norms in a more conceptual way – irrelevant images are seemingly combined with excursive texts of irrelevant authors from irrelevant space-time. This combination of images and texts is parallel and isolated, inviting and refusing the viewer to the private domain of the artist at the same time. Therefore, when appreciating the resonance of images and texts in The One in My Dreams, we could understand it from different facets.

-- Wu Hung

This work is exhibited in "The Revival of Tradition: Another Approach to Contemporary Chinese Art", a group exhibition at the Song Art Museum, from September 25, 2020, to February 2021.