Art and the Body- Ah Xian

The Chinese-born artist migrated to Australia and mainly produces these life size busts and complete figures. They are made from porcelain and intricately hand-painted in traditional Chinese styles and symbols.

"Xian believes that Asian faces, with their features generally less pronounced than those of Europeans, are more sympathetic to porcelain and more relative to the material, which originated in China during the T'ang dynasty".1

Although his works reference immigration and sense of culture identity, I also feel they reference our sense of physical self and beauty. He uses the faces that are familiar to him, drenching them in cultural symbolism to the point that they become almost unrecognisable as human let alone Chinese. The long process that is undergone to fire and decorate and even the casting straight from actual people, all investigate our exploration of the human form and its endurance.

1.ArtMolds Sculpture Studio. "Ah Xian." http://www.artmolds.com/ali/halloffame/ah_xian.htm.