The China Project

55 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection endnotes 1 This essay draws on notes from a conversation between the author and Xu Bing in Beijing, 2 November 2008. 2 For studies of Xu Bing see Britta Erickson, Three Installations by Xu Bing , Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, 1991; Britta Erickson, Words Without Meaning, Meaning Without Words: The Art of Xu Bing , University of Washington Press in association with the Arthur M Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Seattle and Washington D.C., 2001; Jerome Silbergeld and Dora CY Ching (eds), Persistence/Transformation: Texts as Image in the Art of Xu Bing , Princeton University, New Jersey, 2006; and Wu Hung (ed.), Xu Bing: Yancao jihua ( Xu Bing: Tobacco Project ), Renmin daxue chubanshe, Beijing, 2006. See also <www.xubing.com >. 3 Claire Roberts, New Art From China: Post-Mao Product [exhibition catalogue], Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1992. 4 Karen Smith, Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-garde Art in New China, Scalo Verlag AG, Zurich, 2006, p.321. 5 Melissa Chiu and Zheng Shengtian, Art and China’s Revolution , Asia Society in association with Yale University Press, New York, New Haven, 2008, p.107. 6 See illustrations in Chiu and Zheng, pp.3,107–17. 7 For the full text of the Decision Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, see <http://www.rrojasdata bank.info/16points.htm >. Viewed 23 February 2009. 8 Smith, p.323. 9 Xu Bing, ‘Wo yu meiyuan’ (‘Me and the Art Academy’) in Xu Bing and Yue Haojing (eds), Mei yuan wang shi ( Past Events Relating to the Art Academy ), Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe, Shijiazhuang, 2008, pp.6–8. 10 Xu Bing, pp.6–8. 11 Xu Bing, Xu Bing muke xiaopin ( Small Woodcuts by Xu Bing ), Hunan meishu chubanshe, Changsha, 1986. 12 Based on DC Lau’s translation. Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching , Penguin Books, New York 1980, p.101. 13 The phrase zhao’an , translated here as ‘lured’, has complex meanings and connotations. It means to be lured by and be complicit with or knowingly involved with a force that is more powerful than oneself. In historical times this often referred to the court. 14 Xu Liang, ‘Xu Bing: Kuaile bei “zhao’an”’ (‘Xu Bing: Happy to be “Lured Back”’), Shijie yishu ( World Art ), vol.2, 2008, p.12. 15 Xu Liang, p.11. A book from the sky (detail) 1987–91 Woodblock print, wood, leather, ivory / 4 banners: 103 x 6 x 8.5cm (each, folded); 19 boxes: 49.2 x 33.5 x 9.8cm (each, containing 4 books) / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 1994 with funds from the International Exhibitions Program and with the assistance of The Myer Foundation and Michael Simcha Baevski through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / Image courtesy: Xu Bing Studio art and the academy have all been ‘lured’ ( ‘zhao’an ’) by the reality of what is happening in China. This reality is so alluring. The richness and diversity present in the contemporary situation has brought about a series of changes and transformations. It is this that has ‘lured’ (‘ zhao’an ’) me back. 14 He went on to say: There are things [here] that don’t exist within the Western realm, which is what causes me to appreciate what we have experienced in this country. We must face our own past. You cannot be in complete denial about what has happened. If we deny things completely then we have nothing. 15 In 1977, as Xu Bing entered the live-in institutional compound of CAFA at the age of 22, he would have noted Mao Zedong’s rendition of the school’s name at the entrance gate. Mao’s distinctive calligraphy, reserved for key establishments, was symbolic of institutional prestige. Students crossing the threshold of the Academy for the first time felt a sense of pride and expectation. Today, Mao’s words remain part of the logo of CAFA, just as language and coded communication continue to shape Xu Bing’s life and thinking. And yet nothing stays the same. In 1995, CAFA moved from its landlocked premises in the centre of the city to a large, green, field site in Wangjing, north-east of Beijing. Students today can study visual communication, industrial design, digital media and animation in addition to printmaking, oil painting and brush-and-ink painting. The Academy is at the centre of a thriving artistic zone that includes the Dashanzi Art District, where many artists live and work. It is a different place in a different world, somewhere between heaven and earth.