Ep. 107: Lingzhi Girl - Uniting East & West, Nature & Modernity, Death & Immortality (feat. Xiaojing Yan)

Xiaojing Yan is a Canadian artist whose work embraces the combination of her Chinese roots and education at Nanjing Arts Institute (B.F.A., 2000) with higher education at George Brown College in Toronto (2004) and an M.F.A. in sculpture at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2007). Her unique point of view brings together the past and the present, encompasses culture and nature, art and science. Yan is a recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the 2014 Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Project Grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts, the Chalmers Arts Fellowship, Mid-career Grants from Ontario Arts Council, and many more. Most recently, she has had solo shows at Maison Hermès, Shanghai, China, Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg, ON, Canada, Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, BC, Canada and Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, China, Varley Art Gallery, Markham, ON, Canada. Yan has also completed public art projects and commissions in Canada and China including her 2018 installation Cloudscape at the Royal Ontario Museum and 2019 Window display "Into the Dream" for Maison Hermès. It’s my pleasure to learn more about the unique ethos behind her art and her intimate relationship with reishi mushroom, also known as lingzhi.    

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Following the Artists' Path from China to Canada  
• Engaging Space in Creating Art  
• Inspiration from Chinese Mythologies, Stories and Iconographies  
• Connection to Nature in Eastern and Western Cultures  
• Forces of Modernization Reshaping Relationships with Nature  
• Rise of the “Moderners”   
• Weighing Human Progress and Environmental Homeostasis  
• Imbuing Art with Meaning Before and After Creation  
• Pearls and Cicadas used to make Sculptures  
• Roles of Artists in Communicating Balance in Nature  
• Making Art with Lingzhi AKA Reishi  
• Chinese Culture and the Mushroom of Immortality  
• Cocreating Art with Nature   
• Rise of Mycelium in Art and Design  

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Xiaojing Yan Website: https://yanxiaojing.com/   
• Xiaojing Yan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xiaojing.yan.studio/?hl=en   
• Lingzhi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingzhi_(mushroom)   
• "Scholar's Stone": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gongshi   
• "Classic of Mountains and Seas": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_of_Mountains_and_Seas