Artist Xu Bing’s solo exhibition “Xu Bing,” hosted by the United Art Museum and CEC Optics Valley, supported by the Ullence Center for Contemporary Art, and curated by Feng Boyi and Wang Xiaosong, opened on 1st December 2017, at the United Art Museum, Wuhan.
“Xu Bing” is the artist’s biggest solo retrospective and thematic exhibition in China. By utilizing indoor and outdoor spaces of the United Art Museum, the exhibition presents a “night show” of a comprehensive survey of the artist’s creations spanning three decades, from Book from the Sky (1987-1991) to the newest film Dragonfly Eyes (2017). The exhibition features Xu Bing’s masterpieces and relevant archives from each stage of his career, including some experimental work that few know about.
One might ask: what personality traits and experiences enable Xu Bing to have such a keen understanding on contemporary culture and to keep reinventing old artistic methods? Where lies the value of his work? To investigate these questions, we focus on Xu Bing’s ideas and methodology that challenge people’s existing knowledge and thinking modes; we chart the many strands of Xu Bing’s multi-media, multi-dimensional arts and examine how they relate to and inspire each other; we try to present Xu Bing’s honest attitudes toward historical traditions, contemporary cultures, and art. On one hand, Xu Bing uses his unique artistic methods to penetrate the norms and limitations of the Westernized contemporary art system. On the other hand, the artist applies traditional Chinese culture while gaining energy and inspiration from today’s social context. By these means, Xu Bing incorporates the Eastern wisdom into his artistic practice and contributes to the process of contemporary civilization of the world. Xu Bing’s profound thinking, rigorous logic, and meticulous working method not only shape the form of his art but also embody his personal creative value.
Like a prism, the exhibition reveals a spectrum of different interpretations of Xu Bing’s art and it sheds light on his work’s impact within the contemporary art field in China and abroad. We can find in every detail in Xu Bing’s work his unique perspective and understanding of culture, rather than simple confrontations and divisions. Even though each art piece is independent and just a spec of his oeuvre, the exhibition layout and navigating sign system of Xu Bing’s invented language allow the audience to discover the relations between his different yet interconnected works, all through a stimulating experience full of transfer and interaction. (Feng Boyi, Curator)
