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The style of emerging Chinese artist Kecheng Zhu’s portfolio of stone lithograph prints is unmistakeable. Not long ago completing an MA in Visual Art Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts in London following her undergraduate studies at the Xian Academy of Fine Arts, Shanxi, in China, she has already carved out a strong artistic voice.

Overall, her work explores how body language reveals hidden truths and how unconscious body behaviours greatly affect our daily lives. Having lived and worked between cultures, Kecheng is also able to explore the different nuances of Eastern and Western body language through her art.

Among other exhibitions, Kecheng’s work has recently been on display with ArtChina at the Royal Academy of Arts during the 2018 London Original Printmaking Fair and will be included in our booth at Asian Art in London at the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour in November 2018.

Below, in her own words, Kecheng talks more about what she hopes to communicate through her work:

“Intertwined, touched, detached hands and feet speak about the relationships that I encounter in daily life, how conscious and unconscious bodily behaviours greatly affect our daily lives and affect how we really get to know a person, including ourselves. These specific human actions very much bring me into the sense of particular areas of bodies. It’s not a body as a whole, it’s a fragmentation.

Freud said: “He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”

It seems only body language can tell the truth about people’s thoughts. The stability and level of tone do not make us distinguish between true and false. We are not polygraph instruments. Is he/she is shy? Is he/she pretending to be calm? Has he/she escaped something? Does the environment make him/her insecure? Whether we are close or not, a fingertip’s action, gives you insight.

We all have our own answers, and the importance of physical contact can not be ignored. Bones, organs, and Central Nervous System, our so-called command centre; these are all under our skin, but what is beyond the skin?

When we plan our actions, the brain gives clear instructions, but the subconscious may make the body react in advance. To me, the surface is a blurred boundary; I can’t clearly separated inside and outside. The figures that I create are based on my own reactions and the reactions of the people that I observe. The conscious and unconscious bodily reactions are the most important part in my works.

The different communication style between East and West also gives me inspiration. In my eyes, the way the East communicates with the West gives me different experiences and plays an important role in my observation.

All the prints are printed by stone lithographs. Feet and hands are the symbol I use all the time to represent the whole body. They became my own language. My own hands and feet will become the main actors to tell the story. I found my own symbols to explain the inside and outside.”

Visit the ArtChina booth at Asian Art in London at the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, November 5-9 2018 to see Kecheng’s work. Art is available for sale. Please contact us for details.