Sonia Jia · 夕背

Sonia Jia (b.2000)

Chinese born in Ukraine, Based in London / Hangzhou / Shanghai

An artist and independent film director whose primary mediums are oil painting and film production, involving mixed materials and ceramics in some of her installation works. Her artistic endeavors mainly revolve around issues pertaining to precarious intimacy within relationships, exploring themes of dependency, conflict, solidarity, and the trauma of sexual assault. Her short film has received multiple awards, including recognition from International Independent Film Awards. Her artworks have been showcased in exhibitions held in London, Milan, and other locations.

Through various imagined narrations, Sonia Jia attempts to meditate on the complexity of precarious intimacies and heal from her childhood trauma. She believes that intimate relationships are inherently intertwined with conflicts between the urge to tightly rely on one another, based on the vulnerable nature of beings, and the inevitable gulf between individuals created by both the nature of reproduction, the ideology of individualism, and different personal traumas. Under these tensions, intimate relationships often find themselves in precarious stages. However, she believes that these precarious intimacies, which surround us and overcome many difficulties in relationships, have the potential to dissolve the boundaries between beings and construct profound solidarity among individuals.

Sonia’s understanding of intimacies in her art creations is deeply influenced by the reading "Precarious Intimacies" written by Maria Stehle and Beverly Weber. In this book, the authors profoundly analyze the visual intimate moments between people as a way to reconstruct solidarity and challenge the regimes of radicalized and gendered exclusion, violence, and economic vulnerability. To further examine the possibilities of this precarious intimacy, Sonia is also inspired by Georges Bataille’s encouragement to pursue non-utile work. She tends to collect those "irrational moments" in her life and transform them into narratives, such as dreaming, indulging, engaging in sexual activities, staring blankly, or even contemplating death. Through these reconstructed memories depicted in her paintings, she aims to create realms where discontinuous beings can genuinely share emotions and eventually reach a stage of continuity.