Jia Fang

Jia explored the sounds of a number of materials and the sounds generated by human interaction with objects, and tried to recreate these sounds through simulation, making people aware of the behaviour and the sound itself, thus evoking active listening to sound. She chose to combine a cigarette with a whistle. When you use it to try to smoke, you make a sound like a whistle, which acts as a warning signal, so that people might stop smoking when they try to smoke and hear the whistle. 

Jia recycled two rings from two couples who had broken up. One of them threw them away, while the other regarded them as a memento of a time gone by. In this piece she wanted to use sound to create an atmosphere of decisiveness or reluctance at the end of a relationship. The combination of the bomb and the ring implies that the direction of a relationship is in our own hands. When the connection between the bombs is cut, two different sounds will be randomly triggered, in order to make a different interpretation of the work. 

Many artists have tried to define jewellery, but in fact they have never reached a so-called consensus. Therefore, Jia created a tune, ‘no diamonds, no gold, no silver, but I’m a piece of jewellery’ in an empty jewellery box to convey that even if there is nothing there that is wearable, and no precious metals, as long as the jewellery thinks it is jewellery, then it is jewellery, in order to critique the act of classifying and imposing definitions of art, and imply that we do not need to be confined within the scope of contemporary art. 

We always remember characters, scenes, and emotions in relation to sound, and as a response, Jia created this work based on this characteristic. She recorded her niece playing the piano with her family and placed it in the box. This box looks like a photo pendant, but what you see when you open is not a photo but a recording. No matter how time elapses and how space changes, whenever she hears this sound again, she instantly returns to that time and space and feels the emotional atmosphere of the family at that moment. Through this work, we feel the great potential of sound to evoke fantasy and emotion, opening an exploration of our relationship with the world, space, and time. 

Jia’s maternal grandmother has been unable to travel for a long time as it is inconvenient for her now, so Jia put the sea that her grandmother loves so much in a box. Whenever we receive a gift box, we often shake the box first to guess what is in the box by its sound. So Jia’s grandmother can hear the sound of the sea just by shaking this gift box. 

Jia believes that the most important feature of sound in jewellery is the sense of atmosphere, just like the sense of rhythm given to space by architecture. Therefore, Jia used the immersive nature of sound to create three short paragraphs describing jewellery. She did not describe the appearance of jewellery in detail, but, through three different perspectives, let the listener feel the atmosphere of wearing jewellery through listening. 

Jia believes that ‘In life, we always passively accept the influence of other people's words. The sound of this kind of speech is different from the written text. We cannot keep our ears closed and choose not to listen. Instead, our self-image has been subtly influenced by others' criticism or praise, just like the psychological cues produced by sound in hypnosis’. A mirror is a good tool with which to examine ourselves. When people walk in front of the mirror, various sounds of praise or criticism will be heard. We stare at the image of ourselves in the mirror and build up an exploration of self-recognition from various sounds. 

This creates a disturbing soundscape full of dense whispers, but when we are inside, we do not even realise that our personal whispers are noise. Jia set up some hanging devices in a space, each of which makes whispering sounds. When all the devices sound together you can only hear chaotic and babbling noises, but when you listen carefully to one of them, it sounds like a soft pillow whisper. Jia combines sound and space to create a new way of listening, and explores how sound changes our perception of the surrounding environment and things. In addition, she used this work to try to convey that even if we are in the same space at the same time, the difference in the way of listening to sounds will greatly affect our senses and bring new emotions and feelings.