2000

Medium: Scroll, Cigarettes

Size: Approx. 209 in

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2000

2000

Medium: Tobacco leaves rubber-stamped with passage from Sherman Cochran, Big Business in China: Sino-Foreign Rivalry in the Cigarette Industry, 1890-1930 (1980), tobacco beetles; remains burned in bonfire

Size: Approx. 48 x 64 in

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead &  Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2000

The tobacco industry has a habit of calling tobacco “golden leaves.” This book, constructed entirely out of these “golden leaves,” tells the story of how the Duke family brought the cigarette trade into China: “[James B.] Duke’s first words upon learning of the invention [of the automatic cigarette rolling machine] were: "Bring me the atlas." When they brought it he turned over the leaves, looking not at the maps but at the bottom, until he came to the legend, "Population: 430,000,000."That," he said, "is where we are going to sell cigarettes." (as quoted in Sherman Cochran’s Big Business in China). Thus began a thrilling history of capital flows and cultural clashes with tobacco at their core. After this proclamation, Duke sent a young employee to China to promote his tobacco cultivation and rolling technology. If one considers cigarettes a form of culture, then their transmission to China can be likened to early missionaries (before then, Chinese people only used pipes).

2000

Medium:  “Zhonghua” brand cigarettes, rubber-stamped with computer keyboard characters, original metal case

Size: Case (closed): 3 1/2 x 3 7/8 in.

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina，USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

                  Tobacco Project 3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 2011

2000

Medium: Backing for self-adhesive labels of cigarette patent numbers, typed with excerpts from letters of J. A, Thomas (from the James Augustus Thomas Papers, 1905-41, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University)

Size: 12 in. Wide

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead &  Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina，USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

2000

Medium: Roll of uncut cigarette paper, printed with book of poetry, With the Poets in Smokeland (1890), and wooden crank mechanism

Size: 24 1/8 x 29 7/8 x 12 in.

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead &  Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina，USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

                  Tobacco Project 3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 2011

2000

Medium: Zhonghua cigarettes, rubber-stamped with English text from Quotations from Chairman Mao (Little Red Book), original metal case

Size: Case (closed): 3 1/2 x 3 7/8 in.

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead &  Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina，USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

2000

Medium: Custom-cut "American Spirit" brand cigarattes, Chinese texts from Daodejing and Chairman Mao's words handwritten in ink, encased in hinged wooden box

Size: Case (closed): 3 1/2 x 3 7/8 in

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead &  Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

                  Tobacco Project 3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 2011

2000

Medium: Cardboard matches, printed with Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” (1920)

Size: Each: 1 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead &  Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina，USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

                  Tobacco Project 3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 2011

2000

Medium: Neon, stage smoke

Size: Variable

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2000

2000

Medium: “American Spirit" brand cigarette package seals, typed with text from Lao Zi, The Book of Tao, translated by Gu Zhengkun (1995)

Size: 23 1/4 x 1 in

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

2000

Medium: Hinged Balsa wood box printed in English and “Square Word Calligraphy,” “American Spirit” brand uncut double cigarettes, foil, and three trade cards Uncut double cigarettes in hinged balsa box

Size: Box (closed): 4 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. Trade card (each): 16.5 x 10.3 cm

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

                  Tobacco Project 3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 2011

2000

Medium: “American Spirit” brand cigarette boxes, artist’s father’s medical records, plastic desk calendar frame

Size: 7/8 x 7 1/2 in

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2000

                  Tobacco Project 3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 2011

2000

Medium: Ink on paper, envelope 

Size: Each: 10 1/4 x 8 1/8 in.

Exhibition: The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2000

                  Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China, 2004

                  Tobacco Project 3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 2011

2000

Materials: printed post-its.

This work was created for an exhibition at the Ginza Graphic Gallery in Japan examining the dynamic changes taking place in the book industry in the countries that utilize Chinese characters in their language systems, namely Japan, Korea, and China. Xu's work focuses on the conept of language and digitalization. The title of the work is derived from a passage in the classic 15th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, in which the supernatural monkey, Sun Wukong, fiercely battles with a demon but finds himself on the losing end. Employing the mystical technique of ''shen wai shen'' (which can roughly be translated as self-cloning in modern terms), Sun Wukong takes a strand of his own hair and places it in his mouth, thereby releasing thousands of miniature replicas of himself. These tiny clones then join forces to overcome and ultimately defeat the demon. 

Using Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, respectively, to transcribe passages from the tale, the artist displays each version on separate panels mounted on the wall, with each character inscribed on its own small, square notebook. Audience members are invited to freely tear off sheets of characters, unexpectedly revealing underneath a word written in a different language. This intentional random mixing of languages in this artwork creates a narrative that resermbles a collage of different texts. This juxtaposition of languages generates a sense of cacophony, reflecting the complexity of linguistic diversity in a multicultural world. However, amidst this apparent chaos, there are moments when the random mixing of words restores a sense of normalcy and coherence, highlighting the interconnectedness of languages. 

On the reverse side of each sheet of paper, Xu Bing's website address, http://www.xubing.com, is inscribed. One implication of the work is the notion that with the facilitation of internet technology, one can attain something of the magical ability for self-generation, bearing semblance to that of the supernatural monkey’s own methods of endless reproduction in the story. 

2000

Location: The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, and Pack House at Duke Homestead, Durham, North Carolina, USA
Medium: Mixed media installation / tobacco and tobacco related objects

In 1999, Xu Bing accepted an invitation to deliver a lecture at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and serve as artist-in-residence. Upon his arrival in Durham, he could immediately smell the tobacco in the air. He soon learned that the Duke family had their origins in farming tobacco, which had established Durham as a renowned "tobacco town." Interestingly, Durham was also home to Duke Medical Center, a prominent institution recognized for its cancer research, making the town a hub for medical treatment. Xu Bing was intrigued by the ironic coexistence of these contrasting identities. Perhaps not coincidentally, Xu's own father tragically died of lung cancer as a result of his years-long smoking habit. This personal connection added a poignant layer to Xu's exploration of tobacco and its profound impact on individuals and communities.

Through expeditions to farms, factories, and historical sites, coupled with archival research and literature study, Xu came to understand the intricate relationships between the people, the industry, the Duke family, the university, and the city of Durham. Based on his research and personal experience, he created a variety of objects related to tobacco that compose Tobacco Project I: Durham.