Qin Jin - till Nov 15

Well worth a look, this intimate show is 'pure violence'

Some girls like sugar and spice. Artist Qin Jin prefers matches. ‘Fire is danger, it is cleansing,’ she says. ‘It is pure violence. I found it to be very in synch with my emotions.’ Qin wasn’t always a pyrotechnic.

While studying in the oil painting department at the Guangzhou Fine Arts Academy, she produced massive drawings – some over four metres high and two metres wide.

But life outside of class had already scarred her, and by graduation she was using fire to sear her painted canvases. Critic Karen Smith says that Qin Jin’s obsession with fire was sparked by the tragic death of her mother while the artist was still very young. Her use of fire may be traced to the Chinese ritual of burning money for deceased loved ones.

The artist herself also notes intellectual influences from Franz Kafka to Erich Fromm. Qin Jin’s Beijing debut is striking for its intimacy. Only two works are on show.

One, accompanied by a video that documents the making of the piece, is entitled ‘29 Years Plus 8 months and 9 Days’ (2009). The installation hangs from the ceiling and features silk clothes that the artistironed for hours, until burnished. Qin Jin’s 2005 work, however – a cathartic farewell to her mother – is heartbreaking.

Entitled ‘I Want to Be Your Companion for a Longer Time’, the work consists of remnants of a wooden closet and a few garments. Using fire and petrol, Qin Jin had torched the closet, according to Smith, as an act of closure.

But even before you know the private causes for Qin Jin’s pyromania, this particular work quietly sears you. Dead still, it burns with the sibilant intensity of a love letter written as a last visceral hiss, to someone who can no longer hear her. Stacey Duff

Magician Space 2 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang district (5978 9635; www.magician-space.com). Open 11am-6pm Tue-Sun. Qin Jin Solo Exhibition