OLD SHANGHAI is the main theme of an artworksseries called MEMORY, it is a highly condensed image gradually developed and deepened with connection, feelings and excitement constantly triggered by his everyday life in Shanghai over the years. With his mind wandering through the streets and lanes in old Shanghai, he tried to look for images that can truly reflect his feelings. These images, based on his sensations and memories, were delicately chosen and refined by his inner world, showing his romantic feelings and affection for the city.
The bund in his painting looks familiar but with a different meaning and atmosphere. It is not a fixed scenery but an era in history that leads your imagination and memories to travel in time and space and search for legends and stories. This is the Shanghai and the bund deep inside his mind in another way of being and a depiction in his own style.
Being refined by his soul, this way of being is not only significant in history and time, but also contains a spirit that looks for the truth deep inside the heart, making his artworks close to the essence with the power of life. ‘Xiang (outward appearance) was built up by Yi (ideas, feelings and emotion), we can understand Yi through Xiang.’
The Bund depicted by BEI Jiaxiang is neither a representation of the outside world, nor a reflection of his inside world, but a delicate combination of both. It represents ‘all in one’, and perfectly combined his understanding of the essence of Yi and Xiang with personal feelings, it’s a great integration of the subjective and the objective world.
Shikumen is a traditional Shanghainese architectural style combining Western and Chinese elements
