Opening October 25, 2008
Xiao Yu and the Pregnant Statue
“Who cares whose seed it is? It’s my pregnancy.” If this sounds like a provocative statement, you should see the artwork bearing this outspoken title. The speaker, one discovers, is a female statue – latest salvo from Xiao Yu, an artist who over the past decade has established an international reputation for making artworks that startle people. Recognized as among China’s most thought-provoking contemporary art-innovators, Xiao Yu’s works come at us year by year, like a sequence of small attacks: each one nudging viewers to come to terms with the world of the present and to imagine the world of the future – whether as a society or as a species. Gifted with a fine hand, his work can be pleasing to look at, but it’s not decorative. It’s artwork with a point, yet it’s neither ideological nor doctrinaire. Sometimes his artwork imagines future realities, sometimes his creations call to mind current anxieties. Xiao Yu seems to want to make us thoughtful about our lives, and about problematical situations that face society.
If Xiao Yu’s work has puzzled certain viewers, or gotten under the skin of a few others, this is par for the course, for an experimentally-minded artist who is arguably intent on eliciting a gut reaction with nearly every move he makes.
His installation Ruan – at the 49th Venice Biennial in 2001 – made an impact and created a stir. That was the first time a Chinese artist was given a prominent, large, individual space at this important international event. Xiao Yu’s contribution involved what we could can biomorphic sculpture. In Ruan (described by the artist as a mammal), elements from several zoological species – including wings of a bird and, startlingly, a miniature but recognizably human head (derived in fact from a fetus) – were seamlessly interfused, resulting in a hybrid, cross-species creature. The eerie effect tingled spines of viewers, making ripples in the art-world.
Another biomorphic creation of Xiao Yu’s, called Wu, appeared several years later amid the artist’s solo exhibition, A Drama of Materialistic Objects – One World, cold or warm (held at Arario Beijing). Wu (created, like Ruan, by combining parts from genuine fauna) might best be described as a winged rabbit. The novel creature found context amid the fantasy-drama of Xiao Yu’s large-scale exhibition. On a nearby plaque, Wu was noted as the “most suitable pet” to bring along on an excursion to the moon. Xiao Yu’s exhibit was itself a sort of hybrid – fusing together forms of art installation with narrative aspects of a dramatic work. It was like a full, operatic drama whose various “scenes” were arrayed simultaneously throughout the carefully structured space. As you threaded your way through the sequence of displays, a dream-like story unfolded step by step. If it appeared to archive relics from an imaginary future; yet at times it felt like a memorial to today’s evanescent society. That exhibit proved popular in Beijing art circles, drawing a crowd of some 3,000 to its opening.
Xiao Yu now returns to the Beijing scene with another exhibition – including installations, mixed-media painting, the provocatively-named statue, and other sculptural works. The new exhibit is eponymously titled: Who cares whose seed it is? It’s my pregnancy, and can be viewed at AYE Gallery, near Yong He Gong. This much-anticipated solo exhibit opens October 25 with a reception at __ pm [what time?], to which the public is invited. Xiao Yu’s work will remain on view for _____ [one month? six weeks?] thereafter.
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But what about that statue, portraying a pregnant woman? If you saw her, you’d recognize her instantly. She’s none other than the Statue of Liberty: America’s most familiar iconic figure. The original looms over the harbor south of New York City. It was a gift from France to the United States late in the 19th century (commemorating the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence). That huge, copper-clad figure is often seen from afar as it welcomes immigrants with its legendary promise of freedom.
By contrast, Xiao Yu’s new, 21st century statue is designed to be viewed at close range. And it proves more modest in scale. It’s just about as tall as you or me. The classically draped, full-form female, with rippling robe and the raised torch of liberty, can in no way conceal her huge, distended abdomen. Like all mothers-to-be in an advanced state of pregnancy, her physiological condition silently communicates life’s urgent anticipation. This ripe, pregnant form will strike some viewers as beautiful, while others may perhaps find it somehow foreboding. Whatever be the emotional response, one thing’s as clear as day: she’s got one in the oven, and she’s nearly nine months down the road. Celebrants at Xiao Yu’s opening could be forgiven for wondering whether Liberty might deliver before the evening is out.
Does the imminent event bespeak joy or catastrophe? That point (like several) is open to interpretation. Pregnancy is laden with both promise and uncertainty. These qualities we can likewise discover in Xiao Yu’s sculpture – a sobering figure that, however you parse it, makes plain some big change is on the way. Our world is changing. China’s society is surely changing. These thoughts come to mind, espying the rotund legend.
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In light of recent, dramatic news circulating from Wall Street (with repercussions on stock exchanges world-wide), another thought could emerge, when gazing at Xiao Yu’s very-pregnant Liberty. The American symbol’s birthing crisis evokes recollection of the American investment banking crisis. Of course, Xiao Yu conceived his sculpture a good year before some unexpected turn of events brought down the likes of Lehman Brothers. Truth to tell, this isn’t really the first time Xiao Yu’s work has been noted to embody a sort of global prognostication. His installation Foodstuff (seen in the 798 Art Zone in 2005 – showing bags of grain overrun by an infestation of turtle-like creatures) was not long ago remembered by thoughtful art-lovers when perusing news reports about a global food crisis that now may confront the world’s future.
Another case of art-as-apparent-predictor-of-big-human-crisis may be noted among works on view at AYE Gallery. In recent seasons, Xiao Yu has been creating other artworks around the theme of the pregnant figure. Several sculptures are wrought from a white medium developed by the artist – a material that includes a proportion of milk powder. One such (called Milk) is included in the AYE exhibition. Close up, you might smell the milky aroma. Coincidentally, milk powder has been in the news these days. Asked about prognostic characteristics some attribute to his work, the artist declined to offer comment. Perhaps Chinese art historians must be consulted for an explanation.
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Xiao Yu’s career has been marked by a range of artistic media and by an ample wealth of ideas. Certain themes (such as the butterfly symbol) reappear in various forms. Yet one always sees something new and something thought-provoking in his exhibits. Central concerns reflected in Xiao Yu’s art relate to unfolding global conditions and the evolving situation of Chinese society.
Born in Inner Mongolia in 1965, Xiao Yu attended the Department of Fresco, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, thereafter developing as an oil painter while teaching art for a number of years. He came to the attention of the Beijing arts scene in the late 1990s, when he began exploring performance art, installation art, video art, environmental sculpture, and various other experiments and instigations. At the second biennial Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in 2000, Xiao Yu received the prestigious “Overall Award.” He was selected for the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, bringing his work to wider international attention. An inventive, prolific, and multi-talented artist, recent developments from his studio include fresh innovations in sculpture. Who cares whose seed it is? It’s my pregnancy, opens October 25, 2008, at AYE Gallery, Beijing. This represents Xiao Yu’s fourth solo exhibition to date.
AYE Gallery is located in Room 601, Unit 3, Yong He Gong, Yard 3, Dong Bin He Road, An Ding Men, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100013. Telephone: (+86) 10 8422 1726.