Artist profile - Jenny Jiang
My introduction to Jenny Jiang’s “Sowing Day” exhibition was nothing short of bold. Lying horizontally on a human-sized heap of white cotton fluff, I watched as a man began to cover her stomach in soil. Close-up shots trace his hands as they amass dirt onto her belly. Jiang’s skin shifts and tightens under the weight. Then came the pig's blood. It flowed in deep crimson waves across her body, staining the cloud of cotton beneath her. The camera lingered on Jiang inhaling the metallic scent, which seemed to be filling the air around her.
To the contextless eye, one would be confused and perhaps uncomfortable watching what looks like a grotesque mummification of snowwhite from her poisoned, death-like sleep. As an audience member, I questioned how this unhinged theatrical was political commentary on the Three-Child Policy in China. Women’s reproductive autonomy is not a new topic of political conversation. As China faces population decline, the government has changed its previously enforced one-child limit to a three-child policy. Many people living in China do not talk about the implementation of this policy in their lives.
Jenny Jiang, a forthcoming performing artist from Hunan Province of China, is unafraid to use her body and creative resistance to depict the impact of such structural systems on women. Through her art, she visualizes what it feels like to navigate life as a woman constrained by government policy. Jiang's work, a two-part video installation, was selected as part of the HKFOREWORD25 exhibition in the 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Hong Kong. Due to the sensitivity of her work, she rarely exhibits in mainland China.
In an interview with the artist, I got a better understanding of her artistic presence and process. Her demeanor, shy and soft-spoken, was a striking contrast to the boldness of her blood-soaked performance. “When I work, I’m quite different from my personal self,” Jiang shared. “In daily life, I’m introverted and avoid socializing, but when working, I’m forced into social situations and anxiety.” She explained that ‘Sowing Day’ began as an exploration of subconscious dreams, with its current theme emerging as she traced connections between psychology and social systems. The performance was done with a few friends in an abandoned dye factory in Guangzhou. The live audience witnessed the artist’s physical unease under the weight of plasma-drenched soil with flies swarming to the exposed blood. That visceral discomfort became part of the piece. “Cotton, to me, represents softness and feminine power, but when soaked in blood it becomes heavy and suffocating.”
“But why pig’s blood?” I asked.
Jiang laughed and shared that when she told her professor she wanted to use pig’s blood, they were also concerned. “I used pig’s blood intentionally to evoke a sensory reaction from the audience, especially through smell. I see the current Three-Child Policy as distinct from earlier one-child or two-child eras – women’s thinking has advanced, become freer, but the system hasn’t caught up. The pig’s blood symbolizes that contradiction – both fertility and resistance.”
I poked more about her drive to rebel. “My choices have always felt like acts of rebellion against my father from schools to majors…My family doesn’t really understand or support my art,” she admitted. She keeps her work separate from her family, yet still deeply cares about their opinions. They often think her art is “too much” and worry about censorship or public reaction, even though she is careful about what she publishes on mainland platforms. “I want to break away from the system. I know I can’t escape it entirely.”
“I wanted to use performance or installation art to express what can’t be said directly, to reveal the silenced parts.” Performing arts are the perfect medium for Jenny. “Sowing Day” feels like I am watching a young artist recognize her own body for the first time, familiarizing herself with her own form, and understanding herself more deeply. Jiang’s work isn’t about explaining or teaching, but about evoking an experience and using art as performance to embody the state of things.
