2006

Medium: Handweaved carpet

Dimension: 595 x 595 cm each

For the first Singapore Biennale, Xu Bing created a prayer carpet for the Kwan-Im Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple in Singapore. 

The design of the carpet is similar in concept to Hui Su's Former Qin Dynasty creation the Xuan Ji Tu. In 1620 Hui Su created a grid of 841 characters that can be read in any number of directions and combinations. From this single grid, one can discern nearly 4,000 separate poems. In this fashion, Xu Bing selected passages from four significant faith-based texts (one Buddhist, one Gnostic, one Jewish, and one passage from Marx, all in English translation), which he then transcribed as Square Word Calligraphy, and then synthesized into one text. 

2006

Medium: Digital Video

Three 30-second video art pieces created for the Nokia Connect to Art project. 

Nokia: Connect to Art consists of three video art pieces, each lasting for 30 seconds.

Xu Bing has expressed his preference for the hand-drawn quality of cartoons that evoke memories of his childhood, despite the revolutionization of computer-generated images that offer unparalleled beauty.

The notion is often propagated that art can only be considered as such when it lacks any practical function. Nonetheless, Nokia: Connect to Art acts as an antithesis to this statement by incorporating utility into its works. These art pieces will be as portable, existing on devices that accompany us everywhere, transcending physical space. Every interaction with technology will become a soulful exchange. 

Descriptions of individual works:

Flight: Birds don’t like that we have used this mark to represent them.

Growth: Chinese is fascinating in that drawing, painting and writing can be one and the same.

Return: Birds don’t have an opportunity to refuse their human explanation.

1996－2006

Medium: Multiple languages translation

This project experiments with the potential and extent of transference between different languages. Approach: the project begins with the translation of a page of Chinese text into English; the English text is translated into French, from French into Russian, and then, following this method, through German, Spanish, Japanese, and Thai. Finally, it is translated back into Chinese. A comparison of the first and last Chinese versions reveals the extent of the disparity between the two. As of the writing of this introduction, the chain translation project is still in mid-process (right now it is being converted from Spanish to Japanese), but how will it end? I myself do not know. Perhaps it will be a complete perversion of the original, perhaps it won’t be that awful (which would be better, for this would show that translations, upon which we have relied for many years, are still fundamentally trustworthy).

The project began ten years ago with New York curator Octavio Zaya, but it never got off the ground. One day Ocatavia unexpectedly caught wind of another artist who was undertaking a similar project, and I could only agree to stop (even though second hand information is unreliable). Yet, for the last ten years, I have searched the web and made every possible inquiry, but have never seen mention of this project. And my thoughts often turn to this “pitiful” plan. 

Later, I realized that an American game called “telephone” is played just this way. You whisper a sentence to me, I whisper it to my neighbor, and then it finally returns to the last person in the chain who reveals how the original statement has changed(I imagine a similar sort of game exists in China as well). The game, which has been handed down from children, is simple to the extent that it mirrors real life, yet it is imbued with philosophical undertones. This species of game is also used in American universities and research institutions: for instance, in management communication classes. Students are divided into two groups and given the same appliance. One group starts the process of constructing the appliance as it transmits each section of the instructions to the other group. The results of the groups can be entirely dissimilar. This experiment examines the degree of error between direct and transmitted communication. It discusses how managers can effectively transmit directions. The skill of translating is also a skill of transmitting. 

The original Chinese text was selected from Columbia Professor Lydia H. Liu’s book “Cross-writing: Critical Perspectives on Narratives of Modern Intellectual History.” I had wanted to find a passage which like many…… But I discovered that her style is clear and simple, and it was difficult to find a passage that can easily be misunderstood. But it is only by starting from normal prose that the reliability of this experiment can be proven. 

Thank you Lydia, and also a big thanks to the translators around the world who warmly participated in this project.

-- Xu Bing 25 April, 2006, New York

2006

Materials: Software, acrylic panel with printed mylar

Firt Exhibited: "Automatic Update"

Dates: June 27-September 3, 2007

Location: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York

Online Exhibition:

Automatic Updates

2006

Materials: Light box and natural debris, 170 x 900 cm

Location: Suzhou Mesuem, Suzhou, China

Original painting: Gong Xian (1618-1689), Landscape(山水图), ink on paper

“In 2004, I was installing an exhibition at the East Asian Art Museum in Germany. During the Second World War, 90 percent of the collection was moved to the former Soviet Union by the Soviet Red Army. Only some photos of the lost artwork are left. I hope to use the large glass showcases surrounding the existing space to create a new work that combines local history and my cultural background. I saw the potted plants behind the frosted glass wall in the office area of the airport during a connecting flight, which looked like a smudged Chinese painting. At this time, I thought of the large glass cabinets of the museum and the missing art pieces and got the inspiration for Background Story." 

- Xu Bing

2006

Materials: Light box and natural debris, 240 x 864 cm

Location: Gwangju Biennale 2006: Fever Variations

Biennale Hall, Gwangju, Korea

Original painting: Landscape after Rainfall, ink on paper, by Huh Baek-ryun (1891-1997).

"In 2004, I was installing an exhibition at the East Asian Art Museum in Germany. During the Second World War, 90 percent of the collection was moved to the former Soviet Union by the Soviet Red Army. Only some photos of the lost artwork are left. I hope to use the large glass showcases surrounding the existing space to create a new work that combines local history and my cultural background. I saw the potted plants behind the frosted glass wall in the office area of the airport during a connecting flight, which looked like a smudged Chinese painting. At this time, I thought of the large glass cabinets of the museum and the missing art pieces and got the inspiration for Background Story."

- Xu Bing