Captive of Love

Since 1989, when she began photographing the lives of artists squatting on the fringes of Beijing, Xing Danwen has forged a significant identity in the Chinese art world. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, Captive of Love, focus on Xing’s relationship to Beijing and feature works from all of her major series - Wall House, Urban Fiction, Thread, Because I am in the mountain, disCONNEXION, A Personal Diary, Sleep Walking, and Scroll. Recalling several threads from Jean Genet’s final book, Prisoner of Love, which provides a prism for considering Xing’s artistic practice, this wide-ranging monograph reveals Xing has never stopped developing as an artist. In every image she creates, Xing reconstructs reality, as if driven by a compulsive desire to be at the center of the incident, approaching her characters with a marked sensuality. Through photographs, installations, and videos, Xing positions herself inside the event as a subject, a model, or a critical eye, creating a visual language that is both subversive and poetic.