Shi Jinsong was born on 1969 in Dangyang county, Hubei province, China. He lives and works in Wuhan and Beijing, China. Shi Jinsong has branded his stainless steel baby product line Na Zha, a child warrior deity of Chinese folklore celebrated for his bravery and strategy in the battlefield. Befitting its title, this sculptural series consists of a cradle, a carriage, a walker, a toy, needle-tipped pacifiers and pieces of abacus, all outfitted with deadly weapons inside out and evokes the image of Swiss army knives. The artist’s extreme makeover of formerly harmless and delightful objects into such a meticulously built and disturbingly handsome compilation of machineries was geared to expose the constant battles we have to fight to survive the manipulative, erotic and violent nature of our consumption culture and the fearful world. Chambers Fine Art is proud to announce the opening of Na Zha Baby Boutique. Comprised of sculptures, blueprints, and photographs, this exhibition represents the debut solo show by Shi Jinsong, one of the leading young sculptors in China.
The title refers to an enduring figure of Chinese folklore and mythology: Na Zha, an impish trickster with supernatural powers and flamboyant fashion sense (legend has it his red silk trousers generated so much heat the sea began to boil, enraging the East Sea Dragon King). Na Zha’s essential ferocity long since tamed in the Chinese psyche, he is now chiefly celebrated as a God of Lotteries and Gambling, a commodified totem of the new global economy. “Na Zha” is here recast as the brand name for an outrageously unsafe line of baby products. Meticulously assembled in stainless steel from intricate mechanical drawings, they include a deadly Carriage; a sadistic Cradle; a sinister Walker; and a malicious, multi-part Toy complete with needle-tipped pacifiers and dismembering abacus. Baby Boutique confronts its “shopper” with a radically strange and seductive “product,” lethal luxury designed to reveal the forces that dominate our lives in unimaginable ways.
Shi Jinsong enrolled at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in 1994, majoring in sculpture and mastering a gamut of traditional techniques. Under the influence of three powerful stimuli – radical socio-cultural change in China; a reading of Foucault’s Madness and Civilization; and the birth of his first daughter – the artist began to investigate ideas of transformation and control. Featured in Alors La Chine, a groundbreaking survey of contemporary Chinese art mounted at the Centre Pompidou in 2003,
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Shi Jinsong had already established his own style and the impact of the work had won him a strong reputation in Chinese art circles.
What to Do Next. . .
If you want any information about Shi Jinsong or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www. saatchi-gallery. co. uk/artists/shi_jinsong. htm
