Underlying Tian’s sculpture is a sense of anonymity often found in classical statuary. Guided by the natural structure of the raw material, his modestly sized, deftly shaped faces and human forms seem to engage in a never-ending dance of fading in and out of the vessels. The artist revives found and collected everyday objects and kitchen utensils, such as cutting boards, aluminium pots and copper ladles, by striping them down to their intrinsic richness and conjuring full-bodied, energy-charged figures on the surface of what he calls “hard shells.” The works on view, scattered in a seemingly random and unconsidered fashion, choreograph the viewer’s eyes to meander between the material and the form, and inspire chuckles of delight from the perceptive observer.
Tian Jianxin graduated from the First Studio in the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The traditional training of the academy requires artists to first learn to use their eyes, and to know how to see the form hidden in the potential of the material, a prerequisite skill in the practice of “making images from stone” in ancient China. Tian is predominantly influenced by classic masters and unknown craftsmen in the history of sculpture, ranging from Michelangelo and Rodin to the anonymous sculptors of religious statuary.
Working mainly with light-weight industrial products commonly used for containing water or food ingredients, Tian alters their bottoms and sides, and presents the works on the wall in a spontaneous and whimsical setup. It is the vessel’s interior hollowness that makes possible the fullness of the exterior relief. From a frontal viewpoint, the figures shimmer in an aura of antiquity and modesty. More importantly, their lustre, texture and familiarity brought by their traces of time and use enrich the viewing experience with a tactile impulse.
Rarely narrative, his works center around the form of the body. In the continuity between the object and the relief, the works reflect Tian’s adept technique and sagacious insights in defining forms. In addition to single-viewpoint reliefs, he also captures the volume and details of the human body with circular materials, most of which is soft metal, whose malleability allows it to transform and activate the surrounding space. The raised and recessed spots on the surface of the copper hot pot, aluminium kettles and tin flagons reveal the analogy between the cylindrical objects and the human body.
The title of the exhibition, “Vessel of Faces,” speaks of the artist’s interest and methodology. By working with the changing shapes of the vessel, he unveils alternative faces and expressions underlying the material. His work is both a reactivation of the readymade and a wrestle with the enclosed nature of the “hard shells.” For Tian Jianxin, shaping is not only a means to make sculptures; it also summons the joy of resolving conflicts. Through re-imagining, hammering and chiseling, he grants everyday objects a subtle spirituality that only emerges under the artist’s hands.
—Xia Tian
at Capsule Shanghai
until September 9, 2023