COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0010674
image_record_id
aahi0010674
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Book from the Sky (Tianshu)
Image Title:
installation view from side
Work Dates (display):
1987-1991
Work Dates type:
creation
Image Date (display):
2013-02-01
Work Creator (display):
Xu Bing (Chinese, born 1955)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
Chinese installation artist. Xu Bing spent much of his childhood in Beijing where his parents were professors at Beijing University. He said that being surrounded by books during this formative period in his life gave him an intense interest in them. Xu studied printmaking at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (1987). One of Xu's most memorable early works is Tian Shu (A Book from the Sky, 198791), which was created during the 1985 New Wave Movement in Chinaa period of new-found freedom for artistic experimentation. Tian Shu consisted of reams of paper printed with Chinese characters, each one in some way incorrect, so that the cumulative effect is a library of nonsensical words. The labour needed to create this art work was substantial, taking the artist nearly four years to complete carving the individual characters into woodblocks. The reams of printed paper were exhibited in three different ways: as traditional hand-bound books, suspended large scrolls and as wall posters. Tian Shu was considered typical of this period in Chinese art and, after 4 June 1989, was publicly criticized by government officials. When Xu moved to the USA in 1990, cultural critics in the USA began to focus on Tian Shu as a work that questioned language as a system of arbitrary signs. From the early 1990s, the importance of Tian Shu became recognized outside of China, as seen in its regular showings in exhibitions around the world, most notably at the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993Throughout the 1990s, Xu continued to use language as a source of inspiration, including Chinese, English and even Braille. Perhaps his most significant contribution was the invention of Square Word Calligraphy, a system of writing that resembles Chinese calligraphy, but can be read in English. His first work to use this script was an instructional book and tutorial entitled An Introduction to New English Calligraphy (19946). Xu applied this system of writing to various works, from an exterior banner for the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Art for the People, 19992001) to a computer programme that transforms people's names from English into Square Word Calligraphy (Your Surname Please, 1998). Through his multiple applications of Square Word Calligraphy, Xu attempted to change language by merging his native Chinese and his adopted English together to create a new system of writing altogether. (Melissa Chiu. "Xu Bing." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 18 Mar. 2009 .)
Work Style Period:
Contemporary
work_styleperiod
Contemporary
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
calligraphy (visual works)
subject
calligraphy (visual works)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
philosophy
subject
philosophy
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
meaning (philosophy)
subject
meaning (philosophy)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
ink
subject
ink
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
communication (function)
subject
communication (function)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
text (document genre)
subject
text (document genre)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
language (verbal communication)
subject
language (verbal communication)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
Chinese language
subject
Chinese language
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
China (nation)
subject
China (nation)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
art
subject
art
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
installations (visual works)
work_type
installations (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
sculptures and installations
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
sculptures and installations
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
hand-printed books and scrolls
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Elvehjem Museum
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
repository
Work Location (Geographic) name:
Madison, Wisconsin
Image Source Reproduction citation:
Turner, Caroline. Art and Social Change: Contemporary Art in Asia and the Pacific. Canberra, ACT: Pandanus , Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University, 2005. Print.
image_source_copy_from_print_name
Turner, Caroline. Art and Social Change: Contemporary Art in Asia and the Pacific. Canberra, ACT: Pandanus , Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University, 2005. Print.
Image Source Reproduction citation
false
Image Source Reproduction refid:
1740760468
Image Source Reproduction page number:
336
Image Source Reproduction refid type:
ISBN
Image Rights (display):
unknown
Image Rights fair use checklist:
1) use of this image is for education and educational research; 2) access is restricted to University of Colorado and Auraria Higher Education Center communities; 3) the original photographer is credited if known; 4) the image is published; 5) the amount of the work in relation to the whole is needed for education or educational research; 6) the number of derivatives is the minimum required for education or educational research; 7) the image has not been found to be reasonably available for sale; 8) duplication of the image does not violate preexisting contracts.
Work Rights (display):
© Xu Bing
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Collection
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see