Temptation is the drive for survival.People are always faced with a variety of irresistible temptations-realistic,promotional,financial,and sexual in nature.I have been searching for this aspect of reality and I attempt to multiply the power of temptation by displaying it on my canvases.

The cold skin of the lady in my painting symbolises a high degree of spiritual indifference and melancholy that come about when ideals have vanished;the fading red lines manifest the numbness felt towards reality,and how it disappears into memories and dwindling reminiscences of episodes that were once living.Various feeling fill up both the canvases,and my life.through neo-realism,what I hope to infuse into these notions,is a more profound meaning-a self-contradiction of sorts and significantly,the conflict between culture and society.

People often say that I paint"beautiful women"only.But what do they mean by that?If we take a chronological look at the history and evolution of humanity,women are very often the symbol of an era.By taking a closer look at the changes in women and how they are represented,various changes can be suggested about the human race.By the same token,women's attire,decorum,and the manner that they are advertised in pictures aptly represents Shanghai in the 1920s,the Renaissance in Europe,and even present day global developments that we have come to understand in terms of politics,economics,and culture through these respective periods-women are the manifestation of myriad personalities and lifestyles in a particular climate.This is why it can be said that women take the lead in changing the times.These "beautiful women"in my paintings,are simply spiritual representations of the Chinese and their new found complacency towards neo-nationalism,as well as towards their values and aesthetic perspectives.

Often I am alone,and during this time I think that producing art is like hunting.This is because it requires a spirit of adventure to produce an artwork,and it is a turbulent process of unforeseen and unknown outcomes.It is this unknown process that often tempts and bewilders.Artists art like hunters-they wait,they search,and they have reactions so quick that they will not overlook anything no matter how insignificant;in the end,they kill the prey.Through this process,the perception of smelling,hearing,sensing,dying and living,becomes a transient permanence that exists only from the beginning to the end,This is why artists need to have a saintly temperament of noble innocence as well as possessing devilish magic and frantic enchantment.They have to have a genuine ability to experience living itself whilst maintaining a broad and tolerant mind.

I very clearly know what I have to do -to surpass or to destroy the self.

Ling Jian
February,2007
Beijing