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Xu Bing: Putting spotlight on social issues through art
Renowned Chinese artist Xu Bing finds it is a waste of time to repeat someone else’s words and thoughts, considering it more effective to find a new way of telling it to make others hear your voice.
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Signature piece: Xu Bing’s 'Book from the Sky' mixed media installation is displayed at his solo exhibition “Xu Bing: Thought and Method” at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) in Jakarta, his first solo exhibition in Southeast Asia. (Courtesy of UCCA/Museum MACAN)
F
or Chinese artist Xu Bing, art is not merely seen through an aesthetic lens, but also what it means for a society: a reflection of social ills.
“The inspiration does not come from the local problems in China, but more from global issues. Even though I come from China and I have a very strong background in Chinese culture, I have lived in and visited many countries so I think my view is more global,” he told The Jakarta Post through an interpreter.
“So where you live, there will be problems. Where there are problems, there’s art.”
Xu was in town as part of his solo exhibition “Xu Bing: Thought and Method” at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN). Being held until Jan. 20 next year, the exhibition is Xu’s first solo exhibition in Southeast Asia, featuring 60 artworks created over a span of 40 years.
Born in Chongqing in 1955 to academic parents, Xu moved to Beijing in 1956 where he grew up on the Peking University campus, where his father was head of the history department.
Xu was exposed to the arts from a young age, yet turbulent times were brewing as the Cultural Revolution was launched in China in 1966. When he started middle school in 1968, Xu became an unpaid instructor teaching art to his peers, as the school had no art teachers.
