In the project 60 wrd/min art critic, writer Lori Waxman explores how art writing can serve an expanded field of artists—including those incarcerated, trying to gain visas, working to establish themselves professionally, or just wanting feedback for a secret hobby. For this iteration, Waxman reviews the work of Chicago-based artist Tianjiao Wang.
Tianjiao Wang
Subjects that appear repeatedly in Tianjiao Wang’s 24-minute experimental film red bean (2025) include ducks swimming in open water, a pine forest illuminated by a low sun, busy motorways, landmark buildings and bridges built in traditional styles, and a pair of middle-aged women’s hands poking out of orange sleeves. The woman is always busy doing something with great care and patience: peeling tomatoes, chopping cabbage, mending clothing, stuffing bao. Though the rest of her is never seen, she is the heart of red bean, shot in Wang’s hometown of Beijing, a place from which the artist has lived apart during many years of schooling abroad. Wang’s gaze, tempered by the nostalgic lens of a 16-mm camera, observes much, judges little, but always returns to the woman in the orange sweater, who seems to live in a gentler, simpler, more natural world than the real Beijing of today. Sure, there is plentiful nighttime auto traffic, but it is silent, just a flow of lights that speeds up and slows down and speeds up again, like a beautiful memory.
—Lori Waxman 2025-06-26 5:20 PM
Tianjiao Wang
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