A toothy grin and great googly eyes. A child smiles at you, and the aviator's cap on her head is both absurd and whimsical, a joke the child knowingly shares with you the observer. Children are a frequent theme in Guo Jin's work, meditations upon pure joy and unadultered idealism. But against the context of modern China, the commentary takes on deeper, critical tones, asking if society's innocence has been lost or if naivety remains; if our worldview is youthful with its eyes full of opportunity, or blinded and obscurded by play-acting and make-believe.

A word from The Artist

Changes in our lives lead to dreams based on nostalgia, as opposed to a vision for the future. The backwards-looking nature of our ideals causes us to look at them as if they were a beautiful work of art. It is like living in a world intermingled with fantasy and reality. The past becomes our own fairytale, evoking a long-lost feeling of being alive. Although it is brief and illusory, this nostalgia drives people to constantly collect from the past, never realizing the beauty of true idealism.