The sense of crisis and anxiety brought about by the sudden pandemic is inevitable. For the sovereign power, contemporary people, are potential and structural “homines sacri”. Their sacredness expresses “life’s surrender to a power that controls death.” Therefore, in those works, a primitive and chronic tingling sensation is hidden in those deconstructed fists, feet, teeth, flesh, and other elements. Especially in First View and 2020, the sensory memory of the pandemic is presented in a very oppressive and enveloping way through the depiction of the distorted body and the dissected flesh. Bones (particularly fists) and flesh are constantly reappearing and building upon in each artwork, and human beings are broken down as an organism. This is also the contemporary visual interpretation of what Giorgio Agamben calls “naked life”.

Facing power/fists (these two words are homophonic in Chinese), the artist’s revolt is no longer “private”, but enters the public eye through the dissemination of aesthetics. Ge Yajing’s creations have long maintained a natural and genuine atmosphere. Under the changing circumstance, the artist chooses to stay true.

“2020 is a gray and dark year. An absurd horror film is continuing staging in reality and people have been forced to retrench. The whole world presses the pause button at different times to defend lives. Some people see the fists as protests and resistances…and I just want to freeze time at work and sculpt the traces of life.”