Artist Biography
Jialin (Tiffany) Wang is a Chinese artist currently living in Boston, US. She earned her bachelor in sculpture-ceramics at University of Connecticut and continued as a multimedia artist at MassArt. Jialin uses her works to express emotional notions of home, and what it's like, as a foreigner, to always be looking for it. Her recent works are invitations to try to taste her life as a foreigner.
Artist Statement
As a sculptor, material means everything to me. I choose my materials based on material characteristics and enriched history hidden behind. I am more interested in letting the material speak for itself than trying to control the material. I use my senses to feel the material I choose, and try to transit the feedback they provide me back. Clay is one of my main materials in sculpture building. It helped me to ground here as a foreigner in the United States. In my work, I actively explore the relationship between clay, physical motion, and psychological growth. I process my observations and express my inner self through repetitive motions in my art works.
In my sculptures, I use scale, texture, color and mixed media responsively. I play with inner pressure and the clay's capacity to stretch before it breaks. I use bodily forms and skin textures as reference, allowing surface cracks and openings to express inner struggles and to tell my personal stories. I generate sculptural forms spontaneously throughout my building process, responding to the materials in the working moment. It's a slow process of alternately engaging the material through repetitive motion and stepping back to observe as forms emerge.