Zhou Jinxiao – Artist in Residence

A brief introduction of the artistic research and practice…

LOVE, Identity, Connection and Asian Queerness are the most important topics of my artistic research and practice. Regarding the topic of LOVE, my research content is not based on literature and romance, but contemporary politics and philosophy and visual culture, which is mainly influenced by the LOVE theory of Erich Fromm and Bell Hooks. An example of my artistic research is how patriarchy, consumerism and a culture of narcissism restrain the possibility of LOVE flourishing in a community and hinder us from practicing self-love. My research also regards how political emotions like shame and anger prevent us from living towards authenticity and LOVE.

There are two main directions of my artistic practice. One is personal urgency and personal history based-artistic practice. Writing, drawing and performances are the main media and daily practice. The other is participatory, pedagogical, constructivism project-based artistic practice which responds to the research topic about connection. In other words my art practice is not just about personal urgency but also addressing community urgency as well as the urgency of the bigger community.
The artistic practice and research proposals in this letter are mainly based on personal urgency as well as the Asian queer community urgency that I am familiar with and work with.

Zhou Jinxiao about the work he realizes in Linz…

A Journal of the Erotic Mind is a series of painting and letter writing works that I developed during my residency in Salzamt. During the residency, I wrote a letter to my selves to have a very personal discussion about eroticism. Those letters are influenced by the book and articles that I read, which also influenced my paintings during the residency. I was deeply influenced by the book The Erotic Mind by psychologist Jack Morin. I also wrote letters to the audience (myself is also an audience of my letter) as a way to interpret some of my understanding regarding eroticism.

Here is an example:

My dear friends
The wound
Wave a net
A net of time
And space
Then it might become an erotic universe where we keep feeding it and hide inside.
My dear friends,
May you have someone to hug and kiss
when you feel extremely uncomfortable.
Loving Jinxiao

Salzamt Linz Austria
21th June 2022

I use painting to investigate and articulate the ideas, feeling, emotions and body sensations to interpret the text that wrote, sometimes another way around. I see this artistic practice and research as a method of embodied learning and self-discovery.

The text and paintings that were made in the project A Journal of the Erotic Mind might be included in my future lecture-performance The Art of Loving Our selves-Part3: Living towards Authenticity.

An environment that allows me to be vulnerable and temporarily suspend my judgment would be helpful and inspiring for my artistic practice. Since the artistic research topics and questions that I am currently interested in are taboos in many cultures, like eroticism and sexuality, how to understand oneself better through authentically observing one’s sexual arousal? What is the relationship between sexuality and self-hate? etc
…meanwhile those topics and investigation questions are very personal, sometimes it even could make me feel shameful, so a safe environment is crucial for my artistic process.

Instagram link：https://www.instagram.com/jinxiaozhou/