Julia Burns, an Australian artist, together with Enrica Ho, her collaborator, created The Solitude of Jing Hua for Videotage’s fuse:: residency program this summer. This artwork considers women’s insecurities as they grow older and the advertising industry’s exploitation of this private fear. Presented in a factory context, the performance presents the ‘standardization’ of youth and beauty. Using time as a metaphor, twelve performers move around the central character, Jing Hua, in a clocklike fashion. The central character embodies the insecurities and fears of a forty year-old woman searching for youth and beauty. Her search is deeper than vanity; it instead stems from the fear of solitude in old age. The artists, Julia Burns and Enrica Ho, feel that this fear of loneliness is especially strong in Asia, where family and peer pressure, along with the advertising industry, exacerbate the situation.

The epidemic of ‘never feeling good enough’ or of ‘being told that they are not good enough’ weakens women’s confidence and makes them vulnerable. The Solitude of Jing Hua attempts to draw attention to this phenomenon and to unravel the seed of the cause behind women’s insecurities.

《菁華的空虛》是以表演為基礎的裝置，由參與錄映太奇fuse::駐場計劃的澳洲藝術家Julia Burns與本地藝術家何佩霖所創作。透過工廠生產流水線的輸送帶，隱隱道出女主角菁華這位四十歲女子對年華將逝的不安和恐懼，因而追求被標準化的青春和美麗。她的追尋不止是出於虛榮心，而是源於面臨空虛寂寞的惶惶。《菁華的空虛》反映現代女性自信心低落的普遍性。

Artist: Julia Burns and Enrica Ho
Date: 28 July 2011 (Thursday) 7-9 pm
Venue: Osage Gallery
Address: 5/F, Kian Dai Industrial Building, 73-75 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong