Analysis Of Xu Bing

Xu Bing (Chinese, 1955 -), whose work is marked by rebellious attitude towards conventional relation between language and meaning, is one of the leading artists in Chinese modern art scene. Described himself as belonging to the generation of Chinese artists who have lived through ten years of cultural revolution, ten years of open-door policy, and ten years of living in the West, he constantly questions the idea of communicating meaning through language due to the influence of his personal experience. Since early age, his father had encouraged him writing a page of Chinese characters a day, asking him to not only perfectly copy their form, but also to capture their spirit and essence. This tradition hence built a standard of how he should

One of the star pieces shows the magnificent 4000 movable types that Xu painstakingly carved one by one to create his famous Book from the Sky. Each “word” on the type is altered so that it appears to be Chinese but totally incomprehensible to everyone. This corresponds to Xu’s mistrust towards language due to his experience in Cultural Revolution and the erasure of culture at that time as the artist once said “To strike the written word is to strike at the very essence of culture”. The exhibition starts by removing everyone from his or her cultural and educational background and equalizing the spectators. Standing in front of these exhibits, both adults and children feel the same frustration of inability to understand the language, which resembles the sentiment that Xu felt when he first arrived in America. They are then introduced to a creative way of seeing language – the combination of multiple languages under the camouflage of Chinese calligraphy. The addition of English also indicates the changed environment of the artist from China to America. After that, spectators are invited to see the word games that Xu Bing plays, presenting the notion of the paradox between the power and fickleness of language, of what it means to be human, and of how our perceptions color our worldview in artworks such as the First Readers. One of the most important exhibits