2020 

Materials: Book, silkworm

Dimensions: 1.5 (H) x 52 (L) x 42 (W) cm

Exhibition Location: Asia Society Triennial, New York, U.S.A.

Medium: Performance and video editing

2018

Exhibition Location: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2019

Exhibition Location: Somerset House, London, England

Male Feng, MASS MoCA, 2012

2008－2016

The magnificent installation of Xu Bing's Phoenix, a pair of two Chinese phoenixes (feng and huang), consists of thousands of abandoned materials and workers' tools that Xu Bing collected from construction sites in Beijing. While fenghuang is traditionally associated with rebirth after suffering and rising from ash, Xu Bing's Phoenix can be seen to signify the cycle of the painstaking development and renewal  inherent in the process of urbanization. Furthermore, Phoenix recognizes the efforts of ordinary workers and draws attention to urban topics such as environmental crises and labor conditions.

When Phoenix traveled to Shanghai (2010), MASS MoCA (2012), New York (2014), and the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), visitors from all over the world were not only impressed by the large-scale splendor of the two birds, but also deeply moved by the mélange of scars and hopes they carried.

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.

1994

Location: Beijing, China

Materials: Performance media installation with live animal / Live pig, books, mannequin, wood blocks, ink

Cultural Animal was created as an extension of an earlier project titled A Case Study of Transference. In this work, a life-sized mannequin covered in false-character tattoos is placed inside an enclosure containing a male pig, also tattooed. The objective at play is to observe the pig’s reaction towards the mannequin and to create an absurd and unpredictable drama. The unexpected outcome occurs when the pig exhibits aggressive sexual behavior towards the mannequin. The entire process was documented and later exhibited through photographs in 1998. 

2003

Materials: Metal cages, motion sensors, fake birds

Location: Beijing, China

Location: Guangzhou, China
Materials: Donkeys

The idea for this installation came from a newspaper article about peasants in Southern China who disguised normal horses as zebras to attract tourism. Xu Bing saw how this story exemplifies the kind of creativity and intelligence brought forth by recent developments in China's economic policies. The installation itself merely re-creates this borrowed wisdom of the masses. Similar to Xu Bing's language-based works, this project deals with the concept of masks. The zebras appear in camouflage, so while the viewer encounters a familiar face, what is perceived is inconsistent with its reality. 

1998

Location：Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, USA

Materials: Mixed medIa installation / Live pigs, bamboo, classical paintings

In this work, Xu Bing created an ersatz "authentic" space for gallery visitors to view a well-known symbol of Chinese culture -- the panda bear. Xu Bing's pandas, however, were actually New Hampshire pigs, a breed with natural black-and-white markings similar to those of the panda bear. The artist doctored their appearance with panda masks and let them wander freely inside an elegant "Chinese" enclosure consisting of a bamboo grove against the backdrop of a traditional landscape painting. 

Like a significant number of Xu's works, Panda Zoo explores the implications of the mask, an exploration that extends to his works of invented calligraphy, which the artist describes as ''masked characters.''

1998

Medium: Site-specific installation

Materials: Iron leash with character links, live sheep

A long iron chain extends from the exhibition hall to the green lawn outside of the museum. A white sheep is leashed at the end. The chain is connected by the words from a poem by John Berger. 

The piece was exhibited at NY PS1 the same year, and the chain of words stretched from the second-floor gallery to the garden on the rooftop.

1997

Location: Tarble Arts Center, Charleston, Illinois, USA

Materials: Mixed media installation / Metal fence, live sheep

The artist has created two versions of this installation. In his 1997 version, two huge nets were constructed of aluminum wire, with the links woven into word shapes. One net was installed at the entrance to the exhibition gallery, effectively blocking it off, and turning the gallery into a colossal trap. The second net was installed in the middle of the gallery, dividing the space in half. Fenced in on one side were two live sheep, while the audience was fenced in on the other; the two sides were thus forced to stare at each other through a net of words. The content of The Net's "wire words" was composed of personal observations provided by individuals who aided the artist in the net's construction. Xu Bing’s choice to include sheep in the installation stems from his appreciation of the way they observe their surroundings. 

The second version of this work was created in 1998. In this case, a large square-shaped net was installed outside the exhibition hall. The wire words of the net comprised of the text of the foreword to the exhibition catalogue written by Linda Weintraub, one of the exhibition curators. 

1994

Location: Beijing, China

Materials: Performance, mixed media installation / Live parrot 

For this performance art piece, Xu Bing trained a parrot to communicate certain sentiments to the gallery audiences. Throughout the exhibition, the parrot remains in its cage and recites pre-learned phrases, some of which include: 

“You people are so boring!”

“Modern art is crap!”

“Why are you holding me prisoner, you bastards!”