Xu Bing 徐冰

Xu BingBorn in Chongqing in 1955. Currently resides in New York. Trained at Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Xu Bing has chosen to respond to the definitive painting manual of Chinese landscape, the Mustard Seed Garden. Landscape motifs meant for instructional purposes are cut from their pages and rearranged to form a new panorama of rocks, trees and water, each element with its instructional text intact. The composition is then carved onto woodblocks from which long scrolls of landscape are printed. Through this seemingly mechanical process, Xu examines the issue of copy-making in the Chinese tradition, a critical step in an artist’s training and practice.

The exhibition will include a printed scroll and two carved printing blocks.

Mustard Seed Garden

Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll, ink and color on paper, 2010

Section of mustard seed garden

Section of Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll

Woodblock

One of the woodblocks produced by the artist

Page from mustard seed

Page from Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting