2001

Materials: Cut and painted acrylic

Location: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., U.S.A.

The work is mainly comprised of over 400 calligraphic variants of the Chinese character “niao”, meaning bird, carved in colored acrylic and laid out in a shimmering track that rises from the floor into the air. On the gallery floor Chinese characters in the “simplified style” script popularized during the Mao era are used to write out the dictionary definition for niao. The bird/niao characters then break away from the confines of the literal definition and take flight through the installation space. As they rise into the air, the characters “de-evolve” from the simplified system to standardized Chinese text and finally to the ancient Chinese pictograph hasde upon a bird’s actual appearance. At the uppermost point of the installation, a flock of these ancient characters, in form of both bird and word, soar high into the rafters toward the upper windows of the space, as though attempting to break free of the words with which humans attempt to categorize and define them.

The colorful, shimmering imagery of the installation imparts a magical, fairy-tale like quality. Yet the overt simplicity, charm and ready comprehensibility of the work has the underlying effect of guiding the audience to open up the “cognitive space” of their minds to the implications of, and relationships between, word, concept, symbol and image.

2001

Medium: Mixed media installation/ computer monitors

Location: Asia Society, New York, USA

Commissioned as a permanent installation by the Asia Society in New York, this work consists of a series of four flat computer monitors of diminishing size mounted sequentially on a wall at Asia Society headquarters. Words rendered in Xu's invented Square Word Calligraphy first appeare on the largest monitor. The characters then begin to break apart and move across the first screen, disappearing and then reappearing on the second and third screens in a continuous motion. Arriving at the last screen, the characters reassemble into ordinary English script, revealing a text-book conversation beginning with the phrase ''Excuse me sir, can you tell me how to get to the Asia Society?''

Xu’s text, evoking the phraseology of an elementary English-as-a-second language textbook, points to the shared experiences of new immigrants to the United States. By presenting a request for directions to viewers who are already physically at the Asia Society, this installation poses a deeper existential question: ''Where are we, in reality?'' Experienced within the specific environs of the so-called ''Asia Society New York,'' Xu's work plays with the concept ''I am within you, you are within me,'' which echoes the exploration of the same concept in his Square World Calligraphy.

2001

Medium: mixed media installation/ silkworm

Location: Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

2001

Medium: Mixed media installation

Location: North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Xu Bing transforms the exhibition gallery in the North Carolina Art Museum with a three-dimensional landscape. Drawing inspiration from the scenic view outside the gallery windows, Xu Bing takes advantage of the pictographic quality of early Chinese script to 'spell out' the natural landscape. He covers the floor, ceilings, and windows in over one thousand acrylic characters representing landscape elements such as water, grass, trees, birds, etc. The audience is invited to freely wander through this verbal/visual landscape. 

According to exhibition curator Huston Paschal, this work can  be aptly described as a ''character garden” that provides “a witty interaction between East and West, nature and art, word and image.'' At the same time, it demonstrates the artist's increased interest in creating works that are empathetic to the audience and invite their active participation. 

2001, 2008

Materials: Lacquer on baltic birch wood (2001)

                  Lacquer on fiber (2008)

Location: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA (2001)

                U.S. Embassy, Beijing, China (2008)

The idea for this installation originated from a Chinese idiom, "monkeys grasp for the moon," which alludes to an ancient folktale. The tale narrates the story of a group of monkeys who, perched on a branch of a tree, catch sight of the reflection of the moon in a pool of water below. In an attempt to touch what they perceive to be the real moon, the monkeys decide to link their arms and tails together. When at last they “touch” the moon, it vanishes as ripples disrupt its reflection in the water. This fanciful yet thought-provoking tale reminds us that what we strive to achieve may sometimes prove to be elusive illusions.

Xu Bing's own work, Monkeys Grasp for the Moon, presents a chain of monkeys formed wholly out of word shapes. Each link in the chain is the word for "monkey" in a different international language, including Hindi, Japanese, French, Spanish, Hebrew and English. These words are stylized to resemble monkeys themselves. Monkeys Grasp for the Moon extends through the heart of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's main staircase, suspended 90 feet from the skylight at the top of this atrium to a reflecting pool on the lowest floor of the gallery.