Ningjing Chen
陈 宁 静
None Of My/Your Business
performance, photography
March 2019
This artwork was collaborated by me and Jiazhen Feng.
The inspiration for this artwork was my own experience. When I first arrived in London, I found a part-time job. After one month hard-working, the boss illegally withheld of my salary. I asked for police and other government agencies for help, the reply was “This is none of our business.” Besides, I also found a funny and ironically theory which was if you want, NOMB and NOYB can be used to answer and solve all questions. Moreover, in modern society, a large number of people face life and society with an indifferent attitude, which leads to more and more people look on unconcerned when they face asking for help. Then we started to create this work.
Influenced by Barbara Kruger, I decided to use the most direct way that using lots of eye-catching slogans to manifest this kind of phenomenon. In order to attract people’s attention, Jiazhen and I chose two notable colours: red and white were used in the slogan. What we used “None of my business” and “None of your business” to observably express to others is the attitude that others don’t dare to express. Besides, the item and picture conveyed by the slogan could raise concerns easily. This is a good method to let people know the quality and pursuit of the item.
Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989