JING JING JIA
In a world suspended between raw code and physical decay, "The Ghost in the Machine" explores the tension of an eternal present.
Jingjing Jia is a multidisciplinary artist, fashion stylist, and DJ whose practice thrives in the liminal spaces between New York and China. Operating fluidly across visual and sonic environments—often under her DJ moniker 8BitGurl—Jia constructs highly immersive worlds that fuse heavy electronic frequencies with her deep-rooted obsession for Gothic Lolita, Y2K internet archives, and dark surrealism.
Her personal aesthetic is an unapologetic extension of her work: a visceral clash of delicate lace and the macabre, where death's-head hawkmoths, creeping tentacles, and antique dolls become natural extensions of her persona. Whether she is manipulating the energy of an underground club from behind the decks or meticulously styling a cold, cinematic editorial, Jia’s creative output is a relentless pursuit of "total freedom." She rejects the commercial flattening of identity, choosing instead to turn. her physical spaces and self-portraits into disorienting, dreamlike physical glitches.
TN = TUNICA.
All responses by JINGJING JIA
TN. What are you trying to move toward or resolve in your work this year? What conversations or emotional responses are you hoping to provoke?
This year, I really want to develop projects that merge visual imagery and video with music, specifically diving into sound design. The emotional response I'm hoping to provoke is honestly more of an answer to myself. Music has always been my favorite medium, but I’ve always lacked the right outlet to fully express that side of my practice. I want to finally bridge that gap.
TN. If your practice had a hidden agenda, what would it be?
To completely blur the boundaries between a wardrobe, a weapon, and a contemporary art object. My approach to styling doesn't stop at the human body; it bleeds into the environment and the objects within it. The hidden agenda is to apply the meticulous, decorative logic of fashion to things that are violently practical or totally mundane.
Wrapping a heavy axe in delicate, distressed blue lace, or aggressively piercing a perfect green apple with ornate forks—it's about taking away an object's original function and turning it into a threatening, beautiful piece of still-life art.
TN. If authenticity had a texture or temperature in your work, what would it feel like?
It would feel cold, sharp, and slightly viscous. I’ve always been drawn to materials that provoke a physical, almost uncomfortable reaction rather than just looking "pretty." For me, authenticity is the freezing surface of a block of ice in a dark room, the jagged edge of a broken car window, or the unsettling stickiness of slime contrasting with a delicate shoe. It’s not about being natural; it’s about making the artificial feel intensely real and tactile.
TN. What part of your practice feels the most unfinished right now?
The physical boundaries of the medium itself. I feel "unfinished" because I am actively pushing my styling practice entirely out of traditional editorials and into multimedia gallery installations. I’ve started styling the actual framing of the images—using raw materials like stretched neon netting to trap and distort a printed photograph in physical space.
Even when I work with the body, I’m treating it more like a canvas for mixed media, using metallic liquid paint contrasting with black latex instead of traditional fabrics. The goal is to make the styling spill out of the 2D image and exist as a tangible, textural art piece in the real world.
TN. What are you consuming lately that’s quietly reshaping your thinking?
In recent years, I’ve actually been quietly focusing a lot on spirituality, meditation, and mindfulness. It has helped me let go of certain obsessive attachments and view things with much more inclusivity. I've realized that aesthetics aren't inherently 'good' or 'bad'. It's just people arbitrarily assigning unnecessary hierarchies and labels to them.
TN. What current cultural or political force feels impossible to ignore in your work?
The intense commodification and politicization of girlhood. I find it impossible to ignore how aesthetics typically associated with being a "girl"—specifically the color pink, dolls, and domesticity—are simultaneously weaponized and dismissed by society.
I’m really interested in reclaiming that visual language and injecting it with a sense of underlying threat or structural critique. Whether it’s wrapping a hammer and sickle in a delicate pink waffle texture or writing about a "defective" Barbie who refuses to participate in a toxic, counterfeit empire, I use these hyper-feminine symbols to force a conversation about labor, value, and the systems we are expected to blindly polish.
TN. Do you work better alone, or do you need friction from others to move forward?
When I'm conceptualizing and planning, I prefer to be completely alone so my creative process isn't interfered with. But when it comes to execution, I definitely want friends and collaborators to assist—one person's energy is just too limited. If there’s friction but you can still move forward, it obviously means you're working with like-minded people, and sometimes that friction actually sparks mutual inspiration.
TN. What do people consistently misunderstand about your work that you’ve decided to let them keep misunderstanding?
People often see the title "stylist" and assume my job is just pulling clothes off a rack to make a subject look conventionally attractive or trendy. I let them keep thinking that, but in my head, I am never just dressing a model.
I am building a sculptural installation, and the human body just happens to be the armature. I treat garments as structural art pieces. Whether it’s constructing a heavy, transparent vessel pierced with crosses around a waist, or building a rigid, boxy silhouette for a red carpet, my styling is about creating physical architecture and surreal forms, not just fashion.
TN. What childhood sensation are you still trying to recreate, even if you can’t name it?
Honestly, it's that feeling of sitting in front of a clunky old computer monitor in the dark, completely lost in something. Like when you'd click through early web pages or weird forums at midnight while the rest of the house was asleep. It’s that specific mix of feeling totally isolated, but also like you’ve stumbled into a secret, weird little world. I think I’m just constantly trying to recreate that highly specific, slightly isolating late-night screenglow vibe, just in physical spaces and sets.
TN. What social norm do you reject so deeply that it quietly shapes everything you make?
The expectation that our identities need to be perfectly stable and cohesive. My piece, Identity Glitch, is a direct response to that. It’s actually a single lenticular print.
When you stand at one specific angle, you see this flawless, hyper-cute avatar trapped behind a decorative pink iron gate. But the moment you take a step, the illusion breaks. The face violently shifts, fracturing into a chaotic, mechanical glitch. I reject the idea that we are static. The "glitch" isn't a mistake. It’s the reality of what happens when you look at someone from more than one rigid perspective.
TN. What does “total freedom” actually feel like in your practice?
It’s very quiet. It’s the moment on set or behind the decks when I no longer have to translate my thoughts or explain a reference to anyone. Everything just flows. It feels exactly like coming back to your own space, locking the door, and finally taking off a heavy pair of boots.
Creative Director + Stylist: JINGJING JIA @8bit.gurl0
Model: Lisa Han @elsehunt
Photographer: CHLOE GE @chloeeege
Al Artist & Visual: JUNGSU KIM @saysukeee
Makeup Artist: QETO CHANTADZE @qetoch
Hair Stylist: RISAKO ITAMOCHI @risako_hair
Producer: NI OUYANG @rotten_avocadoo
Project manager: BUYANA JARGALSAIKHAN @buyanajargalsaikhan
Production Assistant: CICELY @itscicely
Styling Assistant: LENA @pprspiritcom
Photography Assistants: MINKYEONG & YIFEI
Location: 100 Sutton Studios, New York @100suttonstudios