Duration: December 24, 2021 – August 23, 2022

Title: Xu Bing: Found in Translation

Location: Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai, China

Exhibited Work: 

Book from the Sky (1981-1991) with carved wood block characters, dictionary, kangxi dictionary, drafts, notebooks, scroll)

Monkeys Grasp for the Moon (2001)

A, B, C... (2015)

Telephone (1996 - 2006)

Square Word Calligraphy (1994 - ongoing), with design drafts, calligraphy drafts, textbooks, sketchbooks, instructional posters, and videos

Square Word Calligraphy: Travelling to the Wonderland (2013)

Post Testament (1992 - 1993)

Art for the People (1999)

The Seven-Character Poetry Collection of Small Enterprises (2015)

Book from the Ground (2003 - ongoing), with the Bible, Man, Nursery, Woman (2003), Collage Book (2003), Seven Dreams in Seven Days (2006), Software (2006), In the Subway (2008),

 From Point to Point (2012),  Shenzhen Story (2015), and Pop-up Book (2015 - 2016)

Character of Characters (2012), with draft

Mustard Seed Garden (2010)

Landscript (1999), with scrolls, panels, postcards, and sketchbook

Background Story: Dwelling in the Peach Blossom Valley (2019), with interactive area

Tobacco Project (2000 - 2011), with Miscellaneous Book (2000), Red Book (2000), Chinese Spirit (2000), Reel Book (2000), Traveling Down the River (2000-2004), Match Flower (2004), Notebook (2004), Pipe (2004), Prophecy (2004), Honor and Splendor (2004), Tobacco Book (2011), Backbone (2011)

Where Does the Dust Itself Collect? (2004), with installation and dust sample

Phoenix (2008 - 2016) 

Dragonfly Eyes (2017), with trailer and documentary

Gravitational Arena Print (2022)

The Invisible Language (2020)

This exhibition covers 18 significant sections, 70 groups, including prints, sketches, installations, archives, manuscripts, videos, documentaries, etc. It focuses on Xu Bing's various periods in his creative career; from writing experience to Chinese calligraphy and painting, from capturing visual fragments of social scenes to creating new concept movies and installations, from formal writing to exploring the large-span practice of future meta-language and engaging in the latest space art practice. Compared to Xu Bing's previous chronological retrospectives, this exhibition will focus on the themes of civilization and language and strive to present a high concentration of thought and spirit.

Duration: November 6, 2021 – April 12, 2022

Location: Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China

Exhibited Work: Xu Bing Tianshu Rocket

The Red Brick Art Museum presents the new exhibition, Xu Bing: Art Beyond the Kármán Line, on November 6. The exhibition revolves around the Xu Bing Tianshu Rocket launched by Xu Bing and i-Space. The unique exhibition is presented through a large number of texts, pictures, video materials, and works of art, investigating the history of space art. The discussion of the fate of this "art rocket" has triggered questions about the connection between contemporary art and space, the misunderstanding of earth civilization, the rights to use space resources, and the extension of art on a new scale of thinking.

Duration: October 21, 2021 — January 5, 2022

Location: Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

Exhibited Work: Square Word Calligraphy Classroom

The Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center (HCAC) is the first public calligraphy art center in Taiwan. It holds the responsibility of preserving, studying, developing, and promoting Taiwanese calligraphy art. The center ensures that regional cultural features are shaped through focused studies, educational efforts, and the exploration of calligraphy. Additionally, it actively facilitates international exchanges in the field of calligraphy art.

The Flying Ink: Hengshan International Calligraphy Art Exhibition, the opening exhibition of the HCAC, is curated by Professor Huang Chih-Yang, chair of the College of Art and Design, Huafan University. For the exhibition, the HCAC invites 51 artists from Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and Finland to exhibit their artworks.

Contemporary calligraphy is the result of the inerplay between ancient and modern aesthetics and the complex fusion of art and culture. Calligraphy consists of history, writing, literature, visuals, bodies, concepts, and behavior to be a perfect representative of integrated art. It raises the question of whether to inherit from the past or to create innovations, challenging contemporary societies to find a balance between visual aesthetics and cultural depth. The exhibition of calligraphy presents its dynamic roles in both globalization and localization, inviting the audience to contemplate the ambiguous relationship between time and space and to develop their own diverse aesthetic values and judgments.

As an ancient art form using Chinese characters, calligraphy art is traditional, charming, fashionable, retro, persistent, and unique. Thinking about calligraphy art and creating calligraphy art enable people to develop new calligraphy understanding in the 21st century. To reassess calligraphy art possibilities, values, and aesthetics, the optimal methods may be to curate calligraphy art exhibitions, conduct calligraphy art research, and facilitate calligraphy art viewing and dialogues. To realize these methods, this exhibition introduces calligraphy art creation-related tendency and aesthetics as well as the “dialogues” between traditional and contemporary calligraphy art through four subtopics; namely, “traceability,” “novelty,” “interlocutory,” and “interdisciplinary.” The exhibition marks the beginning of Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center’s vista and demonstrates the center’s plan to evolve itself into a key international venue for calligraphy art exchanges.

Duration: September 30, 2021 — November 27, 2021

Location: Tokyo Gallery+BTAP, Beijing

Exhibited Work: Book from the Ground Pop-up Book

In Xu Bing: Book from the Ground Pop-up Book, there are a number of works dating from the conception of the Book from the Ground project in 2003 to the present, including Book from the Ground - Studio Installation and Book from the Ground: From Point to Point, which reflect the project’s various developmental stages. Aside from diachronically retracing the project’s development, the exhibition also offers a first look at the latest explorations undertaken with regards to the Book from the Ground through an array of media and spatial configurations, all of which have resulted from Xu Bing’s recent collaboration with CASHART.

Before the turn of the millennium, having traveled to all corners of the globe to exhibit his works, Xu Bing came to realize that the signage in airports–public places where international visitors convene—constitutes a universally understood language. Owing to their simplicity, these visual icons help overcome the communicative hurdles between people. In 2003, inspired by the recycling symbol depicted on chewing gum wrappers to create a long-form story using a ‘pictographic language,’ Xu Bing set about creating his Book from the Ground. In 2012, several years of gathering materials, conceptual fine-tuning, experimenting and revising culminated in the completion of the first edition of the Book from the Ground, which recounts twenty-four hours in the life of a typical, present-day white-collar worker named "Mr. Black" (Xiaǒ Heī).

The Book from the Ground project keeps on expanding to this day. In 2016, the Book from the Ground was further developed into a pop-up book encapsulating all the various expressive techniques proper to the medium, such as lift-the-flap, spinning wheels, pull-tabs, pivots, etc. The clever combination of pictographic symbols and pop-out shapes adds to the interactivity and legibility of Xu Bing’s universally readable book, making it an all the more intriguing read. Despite physical books being on the decline, Xu Bing’s pop-up book embodies the primal function of reading. It leaves its readers with an emotional page-turning experience, and as such has proven its merit as a comprehensive mode of display for art. Rather than adhere to today’s trend of putting a high-tech spin on art, Xu Bing instead makes the case for the appeal of a more primal, low-tech artistic expression.

Meanwhile, Xu Bing has also attempted to usher the Book from the Ground into the realm of practical utility by applying its visual vernacular to real life scenarios, in a bid to disseminate the artwork and convey the artistic ideas contained within it. From 2019 onwards, having teamed up with CASHART as a continuation of the Book from the Ground project, Xu Bing continued to gather Book from the Ground symbols that crop up constantly in contemporary life. The two-dimensional icons and symbols in the book were then given a "dimensional upgrade," allowing them to ‘break through the dimensional barrier’ and enter three-dimensional space. Further supplemented with more comprehensive technical means, this served to renew the way in which the Book from the Ground is presented to the viewer, thereby expanding its narrative.

An urban scale model, conceptually aligned with the Book from the Ground, makes its debut in this exhibition. The entire gallery space is refashioned into a Book from the Ground "space". The exhibition will also debut the opening of a "Mr. Black Concept Store" within the confines of the gallery space. Owing to the show’s multidimensional form set-up and immersive viewing experience, the spectator is afforded an in-depth interpretation of the artistic concept underpinning the Book from the Ground project, namely that of ‘a universal script.’ These attempts to break through the barriers separating art and the public, as well as those separating art and life, have given a new lease of life to the Book from the Ground project.

Opening Date: September 16, 2021

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Exhibited Work: Art for the People for The Met

Commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Xu Bing created this original artwork to celebrate The Met’s 150th Anniversary. Art for the People for The Met is a six-color lithograph and relief print, which includes two components: Square Word Calligraphy and multiple red “seals” based on ancient Chinese literati tradition. Upon closer examination, the seals are actually QR codes that the audience can scan to read further on The Met’s website. The Met has acquired the first edition of the print portfolio. The exhibition is on view beginning September 16, 2021, on the second floor of the Museum in the passageway opposite Galleries 691–693.

Duration: July 15, 2021 — December 19, 2021

Location: Smart Art Museum, Chicago

Exhibited Work: Forest Project: The Blue and Green Wonderland

Being one of the most prominent Chinese artists on the global stage, Xu Bing is recognized for his attempts to deconstruct traditional art forms in order to to generate new creations that explore the issues of common meaning. By expanding the dimensions of contemporary Chinese art while maintaining the shared values of humanity, Xu Bing’s works establish a novel and self-contained artistic system that is accessible to all. These works break down geographical barriers and bridge economic discrepancies as well as cultural differences—inviting people of diverse backgrounds to a shared platform for reflection.

Forest Project is a social program that utilizes funds from developed areas to replant forests in Kenya. As part of this self-sustaining system, Xu has taught Kenyan children how to draw trees, which are then sold online—transforming their handmade works into real trees planted on the fields of Kenya. This, like every project of his, is an outcome of creative transformations applied to materials and ideas. It is an experiment that involves art, education, and capital to knit an automatic network linking industrial human society with the natural environment. Taking advantage of the free internet, Xu connects different spheres to allow resources to surpass their usual barriers. He has been developing an artistic narrative that expresses his awareness of the fundamental understanding of common property, which has long been undermined by history, geography, economy, and culture divisions.

Duration: October 27, 2020 — June 27, 2021

Location: Asia Society Museum, New York

Exhibited Works: Silkworm Book: The Analects of Confucius and Silkworm Video: The Analects of Confucius

As a special project of the Asia Society Triennial, Xu Bing is commissioned to create a new work to respond to a rare nineteenth-century official copy of the Declaration of Independence.

The founding spirit of American democracy has often found resonance in Asia. What is less known is the fascination held by early American leaders including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, as well as European Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, for Chinese civilization. Within the vast corpus of classical Chinese philosophical discourse, The Analects by Confucius was of particular interest, in part because it discussed the ideals of good government and moral leadership. Today, the figure of Confucius is found on the eastern pediment of the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC, to the left of Moses and Solon, revealing the important connection between the United States and Asia.

Xu Bing used a copy of The Analects by Confucius, a text that inspired the nation’s founders as they crafted the Declaration, to make a new work entitled Silkworm Book: The Analects of Confucius that comments on the fragility of such manifestos.

by Susan L. Beningson, Ph.D.