XU Bing: Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground

After over a decade, prominent Chinese artist XU Bing is finally returning to Taiwan with an exhibition "XU Bing: Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground," which will be held at ESLITE GALLERY from 11 February to 01 April 2012. In this solo exhibition, XU Bing will bring his works spanning the period between Book from the Sky and Book from the Ground.

  • Exhibition Period:11 Feb 2012 - 01 Apr 2012
  • Address:ESLITE GALLERY∣5F, No. 11, Songgao Rd., Taipei 11073, Taiwan
  • Opening Hours:3PM –5PM, Saturday, 11 February

After over a decade, prominent Chinese artist XU Bing is finally returning to Taiwan with an exhibition "XU Bing: Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground," which will be held at ESLITE GALLERY from 11 February to 01 April 2012. In this solo exhibition, XU Bing will bring his works spanning the period between Book from the Sky and Book from the Ground.

Since 1987, XU Bing has quietly carved more than 4,000 pseudo-Chinese characters and used them to create traditional books and scrolls with moveable type printing press of the Song Dynasty. Book from the Sky was a project that was purposefully undecipherable. Book from the Ground, however, was created with the intention that it could be read and enjoyed by everyone, whether literate or not.  XU Bing started to work on Book from the Ground, an ongoing project since 2003.  He has spent much time traveling around the world, and waiting around in airports. He began to notice the many symbols surrounding him when he saw a gum wrapper with three symbols that reminded users to throw out their gum into the trash after enjoying. He thought that it would be interesting to use this minimal way of communicating to create a story. He began to collect, research, and classify different labels, and even looked at expression and trademark symbols in other areas such as mathematics, chemistry, physics, maps, music scores, dance choreography, etc. To create work that is regardless of culture, and that even the illiterate can understand is the inspiration behind Book from the Ground. With the new language, or “oracle of modern times,” it could be said that XU Bing has activated the Tower of Babel. Both Book from the Sky and Book from the Ground share the quality of being indiscriminant of their readers, where the language and education level of their readers are not relevant to the understanding of the works. While Book from the Sky shows XU Bing’s disappointment in language, Book from the Ground shows his search for a language universally understood by contemporary society.

About XU Bing
XU Bing was born in 1955 in Chongqing, China, and now lives in Beijing. He is now Vice President of Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, China. An important figure among contemporary Chinese artists, XU Bing expresses precise criticism and thoughts in his works with unique subtlety and wit, through which the viewer can sense an extraordinary panache and personality. He is especially attuned to the role words and the substance of writing play in shaping values and culture of a society. Once he wrote, “To touch words is to touch the foundation of culture. To reconstruct words is to reconstruct the very part of human thought. This is a real ‘Cultural Revolution’.” From traditional Chinese woodcuts, contemporary installation of ready-made objects, square Chinese characters invented by the artist, to the organism medium, XU Bing combines various forms of art to convey his philosophical and artist thoughts. He had been awarded the MacArthur Award in 1999, Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2003, Artes Mundi Prize in 2004 and Southern Graphics Council Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Related events:
1. XU Bing uses the new language from Book from the Ground to create a 24 hour story, entitled Book from the Ground: From ‧to ‧. Published by eslite, this book’s first global release was at the 2012 Taipei International Book Fair (1 -6 February 2012).
2. XU Bing’s Book from the Ground Interpretation Contest, details attached on p. 3

XU Bing

An important figure among contemporary Chinese artists, XU Bing expresses precise criticism and thoughts in his works with unique subtlety and wit, through which the viewer can sense an extraordinary panache and personality. He is especially attuned to the role words and the substance of writing play in shaping values and culture of a society. Once he wrote, “To touch words is to touch the foundation of culture. To reconstruct words is to reconstruct the very part of human thought. This is a real ‘Cultural Revolution’.” From traditional Chinese woodcuts, contemporary installation of ready-made objects, square Chinese characters invented by the artist, to the organism medium, XU Bing combines various forms of art to convey his philosophical and artist thoughts. He had been awarded the MacArthur Award in 1999, Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2003, Artes Mundi Prize in 2004 and Southern Graphics Council Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. He is now Vice President of Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, China.

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