Spray with waves

Ai Jing. Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn

Singer-turned-artist Ai Jing's installation works, Spray, have been collected by the National Museum of China recently in Beijing. The artwork, which was inspired by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai's woodblock print, The Wave, reflects Ai's inner world.

"Every day you meet up with someone or something, which conjures up waves in your heart, big or small," she says.

The black and white colors came from her understanding of Chinese calligraphy, which are also her favorite colors.

Once a popular singer-songwriter, Ai, 44, has five albums released since 1992 and became a household name in China for her song, My 1997.

She moved to New York in 1997 and spent a decade there polishing her skills as an artist.

Her work has been featured in several New York art galleries, including the Urban Art Infill, which exhibited her piece Sounds of New York.

In November 2012, as the first Chinese contemporary artist Ai held an exhibition in the National Museum of China, bringing artworks such as My Mom and My Hometown, a tapestry of woolen patches knitted by Ai's mother and decorated with the English word Love.

The installation work Spray, as she says, was her early experiment of art. She spent lots of time on experimenting materials and building the shape of spray, which matches with the image she pictured in her head.

According to Chen Lusheng, the deputy director of the National Museum, the reason why they chose Ai is not only because her name is known by lots of Chinese audience but also because her artworks connect Chinese culture and modern art.