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

Early life

Aowen Jin was born in

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

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

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

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

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

. 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 politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

and for

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 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. ...

'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 modern 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 23 May 1971) is a British retired 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 Cameron government. A ...

and London Mayor

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

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 People's Liberation Army, military factory buildings boasting a unique architectural style that houses a thriving artistic community in Dashanzi, Chaoyang Di ...

Light artworks

In early 2015, Jin announced that she would be creating a 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 music ...

, 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 v ...

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, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

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, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. 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 Museums at Night was a twice-yearly festival of late openings, sleepovers and special events taking place in museums, galleries, libraries, archive and heritage sites in the United Kingdom. It was affiliated with the European Night of Museums prog ...

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 21st-century Chinese women artists Chinese emigrants to the United Kingdom Artists from Luoyang 21st-century Chinese essayists 21st-century British essayists Writers from Luoyang