Wang Jin My Bones

PI LI:

I’m Pi Li, a member of the curatorial team for the exhibition M+ Sigg Collection: Another Story.

When I first saw Wang Jin’s My Bones, I was blown away by the gigantic scale of this installation. Each bone has a height of over two metres. That’s much taller than the average height of a human. The bones actually feel rough and grainy—the white porcelain isn’t as smooth as you might think. So, at first glance, you may have the illusion that they’re some kind of weird-looking fossils.

NARRATOR:

These gigantic white porcelain bones were all completed by Wang Jin, all by himself. We’ve invited Pi Li to talk about the manual labour that the artist invested in creating the work and to share his thoughts on the meaning of the bones.

PI LI:

To create these huge masses of pottery, the artist had to shape the clay, apply the glaze, and fire them in a kiln. Given that each bone is over two metres tall, you can imagine the intensive labour of this process. Fundamentally, that’s what an artist is all about—getting their hands dirty by doing all the physical work.

The artist was trying to say that these bones belonged to him, like a manifestation of his body. But at the same time, the imagery of the bones was related to death. They provided a striking contrast to the wave of enthusiasm hitting China around the year 2000, when the country had won the bids to host the Olympic Games and the World Expo and everyone was celebrating the beginning of a new millennium.

I don’t think contemporary art is all about showing the best side of the times we’re living through. In many instances, it allows us to recognise the societal crises that lie beneath the shiny veneer of prosperity, or remind us of the things we need to reflect on. I think this is one of the fundamental roles of contemporary art.

NARRATOR:

My Bones is an installation created by Wang Jin in 2000. It consists of a set of five gigantic bone-like sculptures made of glazed porcelain. Each bone measures about 2 metres high, roughly taller than a standard door. In the exhibition M+ Sigg Collection: Another Story, which opened in 2023, this work is on display in the corner of a gallery space.

Standing upright, each bone is like a column thick enough to be encircled by the arms of an adult. The bones are white with a tinge of grey. Parts of the bones’ surfaces show the brown of the porcelain clay underneath, making those areas look particularly rough. Each bone bulges unevenly at the top and bottom. Looking up, you may find cracks and fractures at the top. The lower part of each bone is thicker, while the middle part is a cylindrical shaft that slightly curves to one side.

All bones have a coarse and grainy surface. Each bone has a unique shape. It is difficult to identify which species it belongs to or which part of the body it comes from.