Xu Zhen

The visits the other week to the two artists' studios in M50 was a valuable experience to get to talk with artists about how they've gone about their work. I know Xiaoxia mentioned in the previous post about exploring some of the artists' works before we go to talk with them which I completely agree with. Xu Zhen has that exhibit open now ("Matters of Faith") so here are some links to some web-pages about him and with some of his works (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) When Xu was talking about his history so far, I was intrigued when he was describing how he and his group of friends collectively decided to abandon several of the traditional media of art and focus solely on installation pieces. I didn't ask him at the time, but I am curious as to the specific benefits and limitations of each media, as he sees it related to his work and ideas, and what made the group shift their focus then later, as Xu explained most of the group eventually did, give up on installations.

I think the "In Just a Blink of an Eye" series is one of the more accessible collections and, at the very least, aesthetically interesting.