Artwork Appreciation
The artist Niu Jun-Qiang’s creative project, “The Borderline,” focuses on the complex relationship between religious belief and disease. He thinks that the fear that accompanies disease and death marks the boundary of belief: when a person feels that his survival is threatened, he or she will choose to place their whole trust in belief and seek salvation. In The Borderline-1, a work of photography, Niu typed a report on tracing paper on the symptoms of the main causes of death in recent years among the Christian population in the Americas, then used the paper to cover a statue of Jesus. When he photographed it under sunlight, the half-visible text on the tracing paper and the form of Jesus, seen only through light and shadow contrasts through the paper, show the tension between faith and disease. They highlight the contrast between the body and consciousness, eternity and disappearance, and thus show how disease is at the borderline of faith. When the borderline is touched, divinity is revealed, and after this, belief becomes an important presence in one’s life.