ILLUSTRATED:

A brightly orange-colored huge Hermes purse, a crumpled Marks & Spencer shopping bag, and even a piece of gigantic, discard packing pace of Doublemint – all of these form the sculpture works by Jiao Xingtao with the theme of daily commodities. According to Jiao, "scrap" is just the result of human being's limitless pursuit for satisfaction on the desire for material wealth. Jiao Xingtao is used to presenting an actual "ar- ticle" by a realistic artwork and then construing the status of existence between reality and sub- stance by this fabricated, genuine "article" that could be followed. In fact, in comparison with the condition of substances, the artist pay more attention to the life attribute of material. What he will present is not reality, but he "must report by means of clay sculpture then integrity will be experienced". In his artworks, Jiao Xingtao does not use finished products or create samples by transforming finished ones. He always shape packed articles by traditional approaches of sculpture. By size, location and texture of mate- rial, Jiao Xingtao does not only showing modal- ity of the shopping bag, but also reveals local conditions in China regarding shopping. At the same time, he restores the spirit of "substance".