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Jinya Zhao: Holding Air, Holding Light by Jinya Zhao at Abbey's Bookshop,
Jinya Zhao: Holding Air, Holding Light
— —
Jinya Zhao Emma Crichton-Miller

Jinya Zhao

Holding Air, Holding Light

Jinya Zhao,  Emma Crichton-Miller,  Xiaoxin Li

$49.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
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English
Hurtwood Press
16 October 2025
Ceramic arts, pottery, glass
Series: Hurtwood Contemporary Artist Series
A poetic, cross-cultural meditation on light, colour and perception through the sculptural practice of artist Jinya Zhao, featuring writing by Emma Crichton-Miller and Dr Xiaoxin Li.

Jinya Zhao: Holding Air, Holding Light explores the sculptural and perceptual work of artist and researcher Jinya Zhao. Combining her signature use of blown glass with drawing, installation and spatial choreography, Zhao's works inhabit a liminal space - between fragility and presence, memory and light, visibility and sensation. Rather than present objects as finished forms, Zhao creates conditions for perception. Her works shift under natural light, respond to atmosphere and dissolve the distinction between seeing and feeling. Using transparency, layering and spatial tension, she invites viewers to pause and inhabit a moment of perceptual suspension. As she writes: 'Glass is not what I make, but how I listen to time.' By integrating theory and practice, Zhao constructs immersive encounters that heighten sensory awareness, transforming glass into an artistic language that connects memory, perception and experience.

The book includes an essay by Emma Crichton-Miller, arts journalist, critic and author, who situates Zhao's work within a wider contemporary context of poetic minimalism and material resonance. A conversation with Dr Xiaoxin Li, Curator in the Asia Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, extends the discussion into questions of cultural space, temporality and

how we interpret sensory experience across traditions.

Featuring 50 full-colour images and texts in English and Chinese, Jinya Zhao: Holding Air, Holding Light is a beautifully constructed meditation on perception as process, light as substance and material as invitation. It is a book not only to look at, but to dwell within.
By:  
Interviewer:   ,
Imprint:   Hurtwood Press
Dimensions:   Height: 235mm,  Width: 210mm, 
Weight:   620g
ISBN:   9781917627023
ISBN 10:   1917627025
Series:   Hurtwood Contemporary Artist Series
Pages:   132
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Jinya Zhao is a London- and China-based artist and researcher whose practice explores the fluid thresholds of perception, memory and material presence. Working with blown glass, layered transparencies and site-responsive installation, she investigates how vision, sensation and time overlap. Zhao is currently completing a PhD at the Royal College of Art, and her research centers on synesthetic touch - the convergence of visual, tactile and emotional experience. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prague Gallery of Czech Glass, Qingdao Art Museum and Ulster Museum. Zhao's practice reframes material not as medium but as a condition for perceptual and emotional resonance.

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