Zhang Hui

(Chinese, b. 1969)
I focus my work on women and explore their lives, love, social and political status as well as the effects of commercialization and spiritual values. I try to find my own way to express these ideas. Art is also a release for me. Sometimes it is hard for me to show my artwork because there are many layers and many secrets buried within them.

The subjects of my work have always been women. I am inspired by depictions of women from many different sources. I am interested in the heroines of Chinese cinema from the thirties with their apple shaped faces, women from the imagery produced during the Cultural Revolution, beautiful girls from advertisements, fashionable girls… After many years of creation and exploring the subject of women, I slowly discovered my own style and created Beijing Wawa. She is sad, rebellious, lonely and sometimes quiet. She has a peach shaped baby face, a heart shaped upper lip, a little nose that is slightly upturned, four black eyelashes and hair like angel wings. I think everybody can be an angel, but girls make the most beautiful angels.

Everybody gets hurt once in a while living in this world. I fell down when I was a child and I still have a small scar on my forehead, like Beijing Wawa, and maybe you have a scar too or maybe you have a small scar in your heart that we can’t see. Scars can sometimes heal, but the memory always remains.

In the grand scheme of things, our lives are short and almost insignificant -- everyone is lonely living in this world. This is why most of my artworks depict just one lonely little girl in her own private world. Within these images, Beijing Wawa expresses herself freely and she will live forever.

Please pay attention to the name of my little girls: Beijing Wawa or Beijing Baby. I live in Beijing. I’m a little kid. I want to become more beautiful and more fashionable. I want to have beautiful dresses. I want to have cotton candy. I want to be happy. Do you want to go back to being a child? My goal is to simply accept anger and sadness, while enjoying the happiness in my life.

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