In Xiao Yu's opinion, art today seems to depend excessively on concepts and theoretical interpretations, sometimes to the extent that it almost would be enough just to 'hear' the project proposal, without going through with its spatial and material realization. It is too keen on its interactions with politics, philosophy and sociology, on manifesting its own modernity and its dynamic and disciplinary potential, while at the same seeming somehow less confident than it once was, somehow seeming to have lost its identity. It requires its audience to be so fully equipped with diverse cultural backgrounds and academic narratives that it becomes 'stranger' than ever, different from how it has been perceived at other moments throughout history.

Xiao Yu always thinks from an oriental perspective, whether consciously or subconsciously. Bamboo, one of the most favoured visual vocabularies of Chinese traditional literati art, play s central role in his most recent solo exhibition. His re-appropriation of bamboo is not an attempt to stamp the work with 'Chineseness' but rather to explore and visually present the spiritual power contained within the material's physical form. The bamboo is fractured and forcibly bent into all kinds of shapes and postures, sometimes demonstrating its forbearance and elegance -- like a knowing gale of wind, the poised string of a violin -- sometimes rattling with violent force, as if storing up its energy, braced for war.

The artist's aesthetic and philosophical propositions can be perceived clearly through his visual work; this site-specific installation also features a large piece of rope, gradually and powerfully twisted by a mechanical set-up. Every time it forms a different shape in the air, a visual symbol for that oriental spirit which finds strength in gentleness, tenacity in patience.