2008－2009

Medium: mixed media installation/ carved and hand-finished acrylic characters, dye, monofilament

Location: Embassy of the People's Republic of China, Washington, D.C. USA

The phrase ziqi donglai is derived from the Han Dynasty Daoist hagiography Liexian Zhuan. It describes a purple breeze that proceeded Laozi as he approached Hangu Pass. The phrase ziqi donglai has come into modern Chinese as a set-phrase to describe a good omen. Xu Bing selected four ancient Chinese pictographs related to weather, cloud, rain, air, and water, to create the installation. Tinted purple and made of organic glass, these characters create an illusion of foggy breeze descending from the sky-light window of the Chinese embassy.