A Room of One’s Own

  • A Room of One’s Own This year, Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival joins hands with One Seed Domestic Workers...

    A Room of One’s Own

     

    This year, Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival joins hands with One Seed Domestic Workers Care Foundation to present the exhibition “A Room of One’s Own”. This is a unique exhibition that integrates the concepts of “Home” and “Women-only Space” and echoes the Foundation’s concern for women, aiming to call attention to female creators and to explore the position and influence in the creative field of more and more “hers”.
     
    The theme of this exhibition draws inspiration from the 20th-century feminist pioneering writer Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, where she left the impactful words, “For women have sat indoors all these millions of years, so that by this time the very walls are permeated by their creative force.”[1] Women envision having a space of their own, perhaps a clean desk, a freely wandering bedroom or living room, or a secluded place for independent thinking. Woolf emphasizes the symbolic significance of women having personal space – a space where women construct a deeper inner world for themselves. This exhibition seeks to lead the audience into such a space, an intimate encounter where intimacy and publicness coexist.
     
    The exhibition features works by artists Chen Qingyang, Shi Yilin, Wang Yiran, and Yan Jialin. These four creators bring visual images of family and relationships, life and nature, spanning different domestic scenarios like rooms, bathrooms, living rooms, and dining rooms. We aim to create a light, dynamic, and multi-sensory female space, fully showcasing the personal imagination of spatial poetics. Yan Jialin triggers a revisit to the traces of family life, where time, space, and memory intertwine; Chen Qingyang, revolving around the intimate moment of touch, reveals her understanding of relationships through gentle tones; Shi Yilin documents a prolonged period of being trapped at home last year, allowing the senses and emotions to freely permeate life, akin to the wild growth of roots of freshly cut flowers and vegetables; Wang Yiran captures the shouts and serene whispers in the vast expanse of nature, bringing the fullness of the ears and the poetic essence of nature back home.
     
    The four artists transform the shared experiences of women into visual works, reconstructing the relationship between oneself and the world – from “home” to countless worlds. Gaston Bachelard discussed in The Poetics of Space that space is not just a container for filling objects but a dwelling place for human consciousness. The image of “home” reflects the imagery of solitude or passion. We poetically construct homes, and homes also reconstruct us.[2] The audience will enter “home” with keys to unlock imagination and perception, dismantling the six walls of a tangible space and transforming a sturdy physical space into a fluid psychological space to witness the life force endowed and created by women.
     
    [1] A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. First published in 1929, it is a significant work in 20th-century feminist literature, proposing that for women to write independently, they must have an annual income of five hundred pounds and “a room of their own,” exploring the necessary conditions for female creativity from the perspective of feminist poetics.
    [2] The Poetics of Space is written by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, who unfolds his thoughts on architectural space from phenomenology.

    Text By Xiao Ruiyun
  • ARTIST: Qingyang Chen Qingyang Chen (b.1995) is a photographer based in Shanghai and London. She received her MA degree from...
    Portrait of Qingyang Chen

    ARTIST: Qingyang Chen

     

    Qingyang Chen (b.1995) is a photographer based in Shanghai and London. She received her MA degree from University of Arts London (2020). Her work has exhibited in China, South Korea, New Zealand, and the UK. She also attended Three Shadows Unbounded Group (2022), Photo London (2021), Auckland Festival of Photography (2021), and Gwangju International Art Fair (2020).
     
    In her practice, Qingyang explores tactile sensory experiences within common life, going beyond traditional gender perspectives. Her work delves into the ordinary senses to create a distinct vision. Tactility plays a significant role in revealing the relationship between gestures, the body, private emotions, and serves as a bridge to engage with the external world.
  • ARTIST: Yilin Shi Shi Yilin was born in 1995, Changzhou, Jiangsu, and currently lives and works in Shanghai. She graduated...
    Portrait of Yilin Shi

    ARTIST: Yilin Shi

     
    Shi Yilin was born in 1995, Changzhou, Jiangsu, and currently lives and works in Shanghai. She graduated from School of Humanities of China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Photography course of Royal College of Art. Her photographic practice focuses on the relationship between individuals and the context. Using metaphorical visual language to capture the extraordinary moments beyond the ordinary, she attempts to explore the essence of existence through appearances.
     
    Her works have been published in the media including CHIPFOTO-VIDEODigital, Aranya Post ISSUE-5, Source magazine in London and FOTO VIDEO in China, also exhibited around the world including the Saatchi Gallery in London, UK, Arthill Gallery in London, UK, Rabbit Hutch Photography in Adelaide, Australia, the Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre in Xiamen, China, Marie's Art Museum, Harmony Art Gallery in Shanghai, China, and Coast Gallery in Zhuhai, China. In 2023, she collaborated with Imageless to publish her photography zine Particles.
     
  • ARTIST: Yiran Wang Wang Yiran lives and works between New York and Beijing, whose artistic approach moves fluidly between documentary...
    Portrait of Yiran Wang

    ARTIST: Yiran Wang

     

    Wang Yiran lives and works between New York and Beijing, whose artistic approach moves fluidly between documentary and fashion. Her works often deal with reconstructing memories and memorializing objects. Exploring the intricate relationships between humanity and nature in the context of historical and cultural background, her works encourage others to contemplate present social concerns and scrutinize the role of human interactions in nature and society in a poetic, yet provocative way.

     

    Wang Yiran graduated from New York University with a MA in Interactive Media (ITP) and from Parsons School of Design with a BFA in Photography. Her work has been exhibited in Xiamen, New York, Rome, Venice and Madrid.

  • ARTIST: Jialin Yan Yan Jialin was born in 1992, in Fuzhou, China. Her photography mainly revolves around the lost memories...
    Portrait of Jialin Yan

    ARTIST: Jialin Yan

     

    Yan Jialin was born in 1992, in Fuzhou, China. Her photography mainly revolves around the lost memories and emotions of individuals and groups while she always tries to explore the process of memory abandonment through image-taking. She graduated from Newcastle University, UK, majoring in International Financial Analysis in 2016. Currently, she works mainly as a photographer, curator and article contributor.

     

    Her photography works ran into the finalist of the first Female Documentary Photography Foundation (2023), and were shortlisted for Lensculture Critics' Choice Awards (2022), IMA Next, etc. Her work has been featured by the British Journal of Photography (UK), Broad Magazine (CA), Photography of China, Fisheye Magazine (FR), WUL Magazine (IL) and other magazines and has been exhibited in New York, Rome, Ibaraki, etc. She has taken part in the curation of Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival "Local Action" (2022).

  • CURATOR: Xiao Ruiyun Xiao Ruiyun received her bachelor's degree in communication from South China Normal University and her master's degree...
    Portrait of Xiao Ruiyun ©Sean Wang

    CURATOR: Xiao Ruiyun

     

    Xiao Ruiyun received her bachelor's degree in communication from South China Normal University and her master's degree in image theory for film and photography from the College of Communication at National Chengchi University. She works as an curator and writer in photography. She explores the boundaries of the image with curation, with a particular focus on the practice of young artists.
     
    Serving as the curator of Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre, she has curated a number of exhibition projects, including Unbounded Group Exhibition (2020-2023), the group exhibition South of Southern (2021 Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival Local Action Unit) and about 20 solo exhibitions, such as Liuke & Huanghuang’s Exhibition: Still Flowing and Jin Shien’s Solo Exhibition: Translucent Universe.
     
    Her reports and reviews have been published in Chip Foto Video, Chinese Photography, and Photo Art (Korea).
  • Institutional Partner One Seed Domestic Workers Care Foundation “One Seed” symbolizes the beginning of life, nurturing hope, and anticipating abundant...

    Institutional Partner

    One Seed Domestic Workers Care Foundation

     

    “One Seed” symbolizes the beginning of life, nurturing hope, and anticipating abundant harvests.

     

    The One Seed Domestic Workers Care Foundation in Xiamen was officially registered with the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs on August 1, 2018. The foundation operates as a non-profit charitable organization and is currently a non-public fundraising foundation. The primary allocation of funds focuses on charitable expenditures for the welfare of domestic workers, including medical assistance, educational support, poverty alleviation, and initiatives to promote industry development. Presently, the One Seed Domestic Workers Care Foundation’s major charitable projects include the Aug 6th International Domestic Workers’ Day, Home+ International Service Design Competition, D23 Charity Auction, Safety Cycling Program, Pandemic Assistance Program, “I Need a Pair of Shoes”, “Welcome New Students” for Domestic Workers’ Children, Broom Library Public Reading Program, Legal Aid for Domestic Workers Against Sexual Harassment, etc.
     

  • Wang Yiran, from “Howls and Whispers” series, 2023. UV print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist, commissioned by aranyaPost.

  • Wang Yiran, from “Howls and Whispers” series, 2023. Giclee print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist, commissioned by aranyaPost.

  • Shi Yilin, from “Particles” series, 2022. Giclee print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Shi Yilin, from “Particles” series, 2022. UV print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Yan Jialin, from “Undercurrent” series, 2021-2022. UV print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Yan Jialin, from “Undercurrent” series, 2021-2022. Giclee print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Chen Qingyang, from “Touch has a Memory” series, 2019-2022. Giclee print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Chen Qingyang, from “Touch has a Memory” series, 2019-2022. Giclee print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.