China Series No. 3

Feng Zheng-Jie was born in the countryside of Sichuan Province in 1968, but now lives and works in Beijing. His works serve as a commentary on the glamour and fashion society that has exploded in China's entertainment driven society. Feng's female subjects, with their pale faces, richly coloured hair and scarlet, alluring lips, appear irresistibly dazzling. Their appearance is clearly unnatural, the end result of a cosmetic process used to heighten and enhance their role as seductress. Yet, the wandering expression in their eyes, their inability to focus on anything, renders them elusive and enigmatic, illustrating the emptiness and soullessness that lies beneath the sumptuous facade.

Feng is concerned by the massive rise in mass commercialism in China, and more specifically the way in which body image and appearance and material gain have quickly become such an obsessive focus for much of the Chinese contemporary society. By demonstrating how easily human nature is influenced by beauty and how easily we are mislead, Feng expresses his uncertainty over the China's market driven economy.