Welcome to the first episode of Golden Shower: “Island”, the first solo show of the Chinese-born and London-based artist Haoqi Xiong (1997), who is currently attending the MA program in painting at RCA.
Haoqi Xiong’s work is about self-identification, not as a result but as a process developed in his everyday cultural life. The main subject of his research is the Western mythological narrative, from the outsider perspective of someone who didn’t grow up in it. The act of painting thus allows the artist to reinterpret the symbols and images of the Western culture, through dynamic corrections, reflecting on his own understanding of reality and subjective feedback.
Stripping and re-organising images also become a process of gazing back at that particular background. Through the weaving of Xiong’s personal practice, the original references take on a new direction thanks to the juxtaposition of symbols with other elements.
From his outsider view, Haoqi Xiong dialogues with crystallised images within our imaginary and visual archive. By juxtaposing different subjects, stories and eras, the artist stimulates our critical attitude in a kind of treasure hunt, which often doesn’t need an adequate response. Xiong’s visual models range from Renaissance and Neoclassical
culture to the Western production of the Twentieth century, moving from Flemish painting and Hieronymus Bosch to Sandro Botticelli, from Jacques-Louis David to John Everett Millais, from David Lynch to Western Movies, from fashion magazines to tv advertisements continuously reinventing also his own pictorial style through a chameleonic and changing practice.
