Successful art always delivers a message. Artists, in general, are perhaps best described as messengers who relay stories or ideas, most often, but certainly not always, in visual form. Frequently, the artist’s original intent—the primary story—takes on countless other readings as the work of art is viewed by others, each of whom bring their own experiences and thought processes to the proverbial table. Both figurative and abstract works of art are thus widely open to the interpretation of the viewer, and the stories that spin off from the experience of looking may very well be quite far away from the artist’s own. However, some artists are exceptionally skilled at framing their work in such a way that the viewer must play by their rules—the information provided is so crisp and clear that one may find it difficult to escape the artist’s conceptual traps laid out before him or her. Ai Jing is just such an artist, and her trap, if it can be called that, is baited with a most heavily-loaded term familiar to all of us: Love.

　　Ai Jing’s work is perhaps best described as an overload of love, or as a gridded and linear universe populated by the actual word “love” in excess. Her large canvasses are quite literally covered with row after row of the term, and there is nary a space for any other reading, as the words continue one after another across the entire picture plane. At times, the letters mimic the painting’s ground, as in Golden Love No. 1 where gold letters float upon a field of similarly tainted brilliance—the canvas seems to glow thanks to its metallic nuances and warm message. Conversely, other works feature white letters on black ground, or black letters on white; here, the concepts of love are laid bare and made easily accessible. Ai Jing also reverses the term, spelling “love” backwards, at times, thus making an obvious concept more inaccessible. Love, after all, is not always so easily obtained.

　　And to that end, Ai Jing’s message is perhaps not as obvious as it might first appear. By bombarding the viewer with her exquisitely rendered text, she captures one’s imagination and keeps it locked under the over-arching concept of “love.” This then might not only instill a sense of warmth and happiness in the viewer, for it might also provoke certain degrees of angst, agitation, loss or missed opportunities in the viewer’s mind. To put it simply, “love” is a term that precipitates a variety of emotions, yet it is something that is always a part of us, whether we truly “possess” it or not. For Ai Jing, her message is simple: Love is a necessary part of life, and a sweet emotion that she wants to send out to the world. How the viewer responds to this heart-felt message, however, depends on his or her own experiences in the department of love, yet no matter what one’s personal history might add to the equation, overall, Ai Jing’s paintings truly radiate with joy and benevolent wishes.

　　The artist’s own history provides much explanation for her fascination with love, and more importantly, the dispersal of that concept to the world beyond. In fact, Ai Jing has been sending out the message of love for years, albeit in a much different form. As one of Asia’s most beloved folk and pop singers and a talented actress as well, she has been in the spotlight for well over a decade thanks to her straight-from-the-heart songs that feature reminiscences of her hometown of Shenyang, stories of her own experiences with love, and the memories of an itinerant life that took her to all corners of the globe and back. Throughout her entire singing and acting career, Ai Jing has always turned to art for its magical power to calm her otherwise active life. Now, with her first inclusion in this group exhibition, Ai Jing is embarking on another chapter of her life—that of an artist with something to say about human relationships and emotions.

　　Formally, Ai Jing’s paintings reference Pop Art and the culled-from-the-streets graffiti art of Keith Haring and his compatriots. Her use of metallic paints in her gold and silver canvasses hints at a fascination with Warhol, whereas her more direct canvasses in black and white reference the in-your-face impact of Raymond Pettibone or the conceptual billboard work of Yoko Ono. Her work may best be placed in the same family as that of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. There seems to be a system at work behind her grids of love; the repetitive use of the term hints at the sheer accumulation of bodies enmeshed in the throes of love, much like Gonzalez-Torres’s work was directly linked to actual bodies, weights and the passage of time. Both artists’ work grows out of a search for the pure essence of human love, and both seem to long for a world void of evil and hypocrisy. Regardless of her sources of inspiration, Ai Jing presents a body of work that is as complex as the term that she glorifies again and again. Love is a universal concept, and because of that, her work is accessible to one and all.

　　In conclusion, the idealization of love might fuel Ai Jing’s artistic processes, but its reality is what ignites the viewer’s imagination when interacting with her work. A set of four golden canvasses titled Love Pig features the word “love” spelled out yet again, but here, each letter of that word is given its own canvas. A pink flying pig inhabits the upper left canvas, sharing space with a large capital “L,” and a sperm-shaped cloud in white floats just above the “E” in the lower right canvas of the grouping. The floating pig and cloud seem to hint at the ephemeral nature of love, just as they indicate the artist’s playful nature and bright spirit. Yet, there is a charming quality to the work thanks to the presence of the flying pig, and this may be indicative of the artist’s own search for love and to her own journeys between China, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States where not only her singing career, but also her love of art, has carried her over the years. For Ai Jing, love is a most celebratory link that bonds us all, and more importantly, a conduit through which she can send her delightful message around the world.

　　成功的艺术总是传递一种思想。艺术家通常会成为思想传递者，虽然并非总是如此，但他们大多通过视觉方式，讲述故事，传递思想。由于艺术作品供他人欣赏，每位观众都会将自己的经验和思维过程融入到他们所欣赏的艺术之中，因此对艺术家初衷—原意的理解也就五花八门。所以，无论对于象征艺术还是抽象艺术，可谓是仁者见仁，智者见智。根据欣赏者经验所产生的故事可能与艺术家本意南辕北辙。然而，有些艺术家极其擅长设计他们的作品，让观众必须按照其规则进行。他们所提供的信息非常清晰，人们很难逃出艺术家所设定的概念陷阱。艾敬就是这样的艺术家，她所设定的陷阱，如果可以这么说的话，充满了所有人所熟悉的字眼：爱。

　　艾敬的作品真可以说是充满了爱，或由太多“爱”字组成的网格和线状世界。她的大幅画布上充满了爱，几乎没有其他任何解读的空间，因为整个画面上“爱”字一个挨一个，密密麻麻。有时，爱字酷似背景，如在《金色的爱1号》中，金色文字飘浮在如同染上光彩的田野之上，由于其金属质感和洋洋暖意，画布似乎在发光。相反，其他作品要么是黑底白字，要么是白底黑字。这里，爱的概念彰显无疑，易于理解。有时，艾敬也会反过来，将“爱”字倒着写，从而使得原本清晰的感念变得晦涩难解。总之，爱并非总是唾手可得。

　　因此，艾敬所表达的信息也许并不像开始时所说的那么明显。她以精美的文笔抓住了观众的想象，并将他们固定在“爱”这一大概念上。这不仅能给观众一种亲切感和幸福感，还会在观众的头脑中引发一定程度的焦虑、兴奋以及机会丧失或错过感。简而言之，“爱”是一个掺杂了各种情感的术语，同时它又是我们生活的一部分，无论我们是否真正“拥有”它。对艾敬来说，她要表达的信息非常简单：爱是生活中不可分割的一部分，是她希望向世界传递的一种甜美情感。然而，观众对这种真诚信息如何反应将取决于他们对爱的体验，无论一个人的自身经历对这种情感带来什么影响，但是，艾敬的绘画都真正流露出快乐与祝福。

　　艺术家自身经历很大程度上解释了她对爱的痴迷，更重要的是，为什么她要将爱的概念向世界传播。实际上，艾敬多年来一直从事着爱的传播，尽管形式不一。作为亚洲最受欢迎的民谣摇滚歌手之一和一名才华横溢的演员，在过去的十几年中已为世人瞩目，这一切都归功于她发自内心的歌唱。她的歌充满了对故乡沈阳的思念，讲述了她爱的经历以及她对让她周游世界的巡回演出生活的追忆。在她整个演唱和演艺生涯中，她总是从艺术中寻求神奇力量，来平静她活跃的生活。如今，通过第一次参加这样的群展，艾敬掀开了生活新篇章——艺术家将通过它阐述人类关系与情感。

　　形式上，艾敬的绘画融合了流行艺术和基思•哈林及其爱好者所推崇的精选街头涂鸦。在金银色画布上用金属颜料作画揭示出她对沃赫尔的痴迷，而直接在画布上采用黑白颜色作画说明她的画法深受雷蒙德•派迪伯恩或小野洋子概念广告牌作品的直接影响。她的作品几乎与菲里克斯•冈萨雷兹-托里斯作品同出一辙。在她爱的网格后面似乎有一种体制在发挥作用;重复使用“爱”的术语暗示了身体陷入爱的痛苦，不能自拔。正如冈萨雷兹-托里斯的作品一样，它与实体、总量以及时间流逝有着密切的关系。两位艺术家的作品都表现出对人类爱之精髓的探求，都渴望一个没有邪恶与伪善的世界。无论其灵感来源于哪里，艾敬为我们提供了大量如同她一再赞美的字眼一样复杂的作品。爱是一个广义的概念，也正因如此，她的作品为所有人所接受。

　　总之，对爱的理想化可能会推动艾敬在艺术道路上前行， 而事实可能会在观众与其作品交流中激发他们的想象力。一组由四幅金色画板组成的名为《love pig》的绘画再次拼出“爱”字，其中每个字母占一个画板。一头粉色会飞的猪占据了左上方的画板，与大写字母“L”共享画布空间，而在组画右下方的画板上，精子状白云飘浮在“E”上面。飞翔的猪与白云似乎暗示着爱的短暂，也象征着艺术家顽皮的天性和欢快的心境。她的作品透着一种迷人的魅力，这归功于这头会飞的猪。这可能暗示着艺术家自身对爱的探求，和徘徊于中国、香港、日本和美国之间的人生旅程。不仅她的歌唱生涯，而且她对艺术的爱始终伴随着她。对艾敬来说，爱是几乎是一种将我们联系在一起，值得庆贺的纽带，最重要的是，它是一种通道，通过它，艺术家将她的快乐信息传向世界。

作者：Eric,C.,Shiner<br>艾里克•C•希纳