Ah Xian, Bust 14 1999 Made in Jingdezhen porcelain with overglaze colour enamel four season flowers and butterfly design 37 x 33 x 23cm Collection of the Artist

Installation photos, A series of works in porcelain by Ah Xian, RMIT Gallery, 2000

Ah Xian, Bust 33 1999 Made in Jingdezhen porcelain with low-temperature colour glaze carved relief dragon, cloud and ocean design 40 x 38 x 20cm Collection of the Artist.

China China – A series of works in porcelain by Ah Xian

China, China is an exhibition of more than 35 exquisite hand-made and painted porcelain busts made in a studio-workshop in China by Ah Xian, an artist regarded as one of Australia’s most important Post-Tiananmen Square émigré artists.

Ah Xian’s China, China series prompts questions about cultural identity and authenticity, perfection, beauty, and mortality. This work has been celebrated for being both visually seductive and historically poignant.

China, China is the result of a decade long philosophical journey. As Ah Xian has observed: “Once I decided to leave China, the country of my birth where I grew up and was educated and which I both deeply loved and hated at the same time, my soul began a journey to pursue and explore something called freedom”.  The production of these conceptual sculptures seem to have gone some way towards salving Ah Xian’s sense of physical and cultural displacement.

Supported by the Australian Council for the Arts.