Background Story: Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains
Materials: Natural debris attached to frosted glass panel
2020
Exhibition Location:The 1st Ji'nan Biennial, Shandong Province, China
Square Word Calligraphy: Mouton Rothschild
The artwork for the 2018 vintage label reflects on the illusory splendour of Xu Bing’s series of imaginary Chinese characters. The calligraphy resembles the structure of Chinese characters but is actually composed of the Latin alphabet. With an acute sense of the bonds that unite different cultures, Xu Bing expresses his linguistic creativity in the 2018 label by rewriting the Latin alphabet to create a unique script in which the alphabet is absorbed into the codes of traditional Chinese ideography.
The 2018 label features a coalescence of cultures through the Chinese characters that denote “Mouton Rothschild.” The letters in the artwork are designed by Xu Bing to reveal themselves to the attentive reader one after the other, in the same way that the aromas and flavours of a very fine wine, with patience, are also gradually discovered.