(p:d) Shuochun Xiang

p:d (Shuochun Xiang) (b. 1997) is a London-based artist from Jiangsu, China. After graduating from the Xian Academy of Fine Art in traditional Chinese Painting, she now studies MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art.

Integrating her life practice into her artistic practice, her work was involved in a wide range of media, including but not limited to sculpture, moving images, text and performance. p:d tends to choose basic and daily materials, focuses on East Asian structural social issues from a female perspective and explores themes of alienation and body politics.

As a professional contemporary art sculptor, she primarily explored the possibilities of flour as a material during her two years of study at RCA. In her eyes, the dough is another form of the body; it can be loose, solid, fluid, ecological, and fragmented... By mechanically engaging in the act of kneading, she attempts to explore the disciplining and influencing effects of the Other, represented by mundane trivialities, on the body.

Should I continue to indulge in the gentleness of order or leap headfirst into the chaotic abyss?

Throughout my artistic journey, I have explored the interplay between structure and chaos, seeking to understand their profound impact on the human experience. Order offers a sense of security, stability, and familiarity. It provides a framework within which we can navigate the complexities of existence. It whispers promises of control and predictability, offering solace in its organized patterns.

On the other hand, chaos beckons with its allure. It embodies the unpredictable, the raw, and the untamed. It is the realm of endless possibilities, where boundaries blur and new forms emerge. In chaos, we confront the unknown, challenging our preconceived notions and pushing the boundaries of our understanding.

My artistic practice becomes a battleground where these contrasting forces collide. In this graduate show, I attempt to use a kind of chill, soft and poetry language, seeking to express the tension and harmony that arise from their juxtaposition.

HOW TO MAKE A DOUGH – This series of works derives from these ideas and explores topics such as the relationship between the body and food, the meaning of repetitive work and life in eternity through a basic, cosmopolitan material such as flour, which requires close contact with the body and skin. The chosen cold AI voice emphasizes subtle body movements that oddly echo while creating a sense of severance from the warm daily repetition of housework. Through the lens of female, the author attempts to explore the alienation o

Flour Pebble 1

Flour pebble 2

Flour Pebble 3

Medium:

moving image, sculpture, photo

Size:

00'14'29

YOU CAN NOT RUN AWAY

The mass organisation of the exams, and the strangeness of drawing this Western style still-lives that are no longer really painted in the West. In this work I try to preserve the original state of the object by wrapping the still life itself in metal mesh, then I try to cover the canvas with a metal dream catcher before doing this painting and then uncovering the paint-stained wire. This work attempts to discuss a metaphor for caging, controlling, alienating...

Dream Catcher

bait – As a metaphor for discipline, the net is not only a strong desire to catch but also a blocking and rejection, resilient but solid. The soft dough is the body of a female, soft and hard. This work explores domestication and resistance, the situation of being an instrument of patriarchal discipline in the repetition of daily housework, and the alienation of the body by this silent violence.

Size:

flexible

alienation artwork discipline repetition

tension 1 – I have delved deeply into the unavoidable tasks of everyday life. These tasks have shaped me, becoming intertwined with my being. I collapse into them, enveloping myself within their grasp, unable to escape.

tension 2

Medium:

sculpture

flour relationship sculpture wrap

(p:d) Shuochun Xiang

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Royal College of Art