Aowen Jin is a Chinese-born British artist and social commentator.

Early life

Aowen Jin was born in

Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...

, Henan in China. She moved to the United Kingdom as a student when she was 18, and initially studied Law & Economics at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

. After rediscovering a passion for art she switched to studying Fine Art at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

. During her degree she was commissioned to produce painting works for British Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

and for

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

's 80th Birthday, and was named by both '' Dazed & Confused'' magazine and ''

The Times Magazine ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

'' as one of the UK's top emerging artists. Aowen was part of Goldsmith's graduate exhibition at Free Range Shows in 2006, titled "Textile Collective".

Sound Fountain

In 2013, Jin was commissioned by

to produce an artwork for the first official visit of British Chancellor

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

and London Mayor

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

to Beijing. For the commission she produced a live "Sound Fountain", made of common British garden equipment, which danced to sounds that were transmitted live from various locations around London. The artwork was exhibited in Beijing's

798 Art Zone 798 Art Zone (), or Dashanzi Art District, is a complex of 50-year-old decommissioned military factory buildings boasting a unique architectural style that houses a thriving artistic community in Dashanzi, Chaoyang District, Beijing. The area is ...

Light artworks

In early 2015, Jin announced that she would be creating an permanent exhibit called "i18n" at the

Horniman Museum The Horniman Museum and Gardens is a museum in Forest Hill, London, England. Commissioned in 1898, it opened in 1901 and was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Modern Style. It has displays of anthropology, natural history and musical ...

, launching in February 2015, made up of invisible paintings that could only be seen under UV light. On announcing the exhibition at the museum she said: "The founder of the museum had the most extensive collection of Chinese tea artifacts in the world. He tried to bring Chinese culture and lives back to Britain through objects and steam ships. I will try bring them to the local community by using gods and technology." Following this project, Jin was commissioned by

Birmingham Hippodrome The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England. Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including vi ...

and

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

to use artworks to engage with Birmingham's Chinese community. Her artwork, named "Midlight", was an interactive light show that reacted to sound and posts on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. It was exhibited at Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Cathedral, and

Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum Thinktank, Birmingham (formerly known as simply Thinktank) is a science museum in Birmingham, England. Opened in 2001, it is part of Birmingham Museums Trust and is located within the Millennium Point (Birmingham), Millennium Point complex on ...

in late 2015, culminating in a Chinese New Year show at the Cathedral in February 2016. In 2016 it was announced that Jin was selected for that year's Museums at Night project, where a new light artwork would be shown in a UK museum chosen by the public.

Recognition

She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women in 2013 and also in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jin, Aowen Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London 1978 births Living people Chinese contemporary artists Chinese women artists Chinese emigrants to the United Kingdom Artists from Luoyang Chinese essayists 21st-century British essayists Writers from Luoyang