A Personal Diary

Red Brick Art Museum Collection

© Xing Danwen

Intro

In A Personal Diary, Xing presents a highly poetic work that reflects her keen ability to inscribe China’s alternative art scene in the 1990s into her own personal narrative. We see the city through her eyes, disturbed by rapid urban development. The series calls artists and their artworks from their studios to the streets. It witnesses the emergence of installation art in public spaces, and it accompanies and connects with performers in private apartments, presenting a strong, sensual closeness to them. The camera is frequently visible in the photographs, and so is Xing herself, as she captures people and events with an unmistakable passion for what is portrayed.