2015-

Medium: Clothing label and programming writing

Dimension：Each piece 35.7 x 26.3 cm x 12

                     Outside packing 41 × 28.5 × 3.5 cm

Exhibition：Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai, 2021-2022. TOKYO Gallery + BTAP, Beijing, 2021. 

Since 2015, Xu Bing has collected tens of thousands of clothing brand labels from small private enterprises. These labels reflect the history of their entrepreneurship, development, bottlenecks, conversions, and acquisitions when put together. Meanwhile, we can also consider the brand name as inherited with people’s expectations and aspirations for their future. We develop a “poem writing software” particularly for this project. The computer program searches for appropriate words and sentences among fashion label tags to create a “Seven-Character Poem，” then later compiled into the collection. It is also an advancement in the creation of an “artist book.”

Media：Mixed media, Video installation 

Time length: 2'8'' now (work still in progress) 

Exhibition: Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, 2021-2022. XieZilongPhotography Museum, Changsha, 2022.

This is the first still-frame animation work to be shot in outer space using a satellite in orbit past its service life. Using images transmitted from the ground and a self-directed camera on the satellite, man-made pictures interact with images taken from the satellite while orbiting the earth and are incorporated into the animation. Imagine the “Standard Person” interacting with outer space, carrying a bundle as he/she run about in outer space with words spilling out from his baggage. The satellite orbits around the earth 15 times a day, and when it is located above different geographical locations, the language of the spilled words in the animation changes with it as well. This work represents far-reaching concepts shaping the existence of humanity such as human civilization, language, and time, reminding us to look back at our blue earth in the context of the zero-gravity conditions of space, and also to cherish the only home we know – the one single small blue dot. At the same time that you are viewing the work in the gallery, the work is still continuously created in outer space.

2020-

The project lead team: Xu Bing, Feng Yan, Zhang Wenchao, Sun Shining

Medium: Artificial intelligence generated film with variable duration

Time length：variable duration

Exhibition：The 5th Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival, 2021. Museum of Art Pudong, 2021-2022. 

This project works closely with artificial intelligence scientists to develop a real-time feature film production artificial intelligence system with no human production personnel (directors, screenwriters, photographers, or actors, etc.). The audience can input the movie type (such as science fiction, crime, love, etc.) according to their needs. The audience can also change the narrative plot or style of the movie by entering keywords or sentences and making a never-repeated movie produced by AI. This project aims to pursue an element that natural persons cannot create but is also in demand and not found in traditional film. Its concept is based on the shortcomings of natural persons, such as prejudice in the judgment of problems due to a narrow sense of emotions, greed and evil thoughts driven by political and economic interests, restrictions because of the limitation of knowledge and vision. AI suggests the “internal structure” of human life by accumulating various human image materials from a calm standpoint. This project is an experiment of the future possibility of AI film.

Title：Book from the Ground: One Day in Manchester

Exhibition: 2021 Manchester International Festival, Great Britain, 2021

Title：Square Word Calligraphy: Gold from the Stone

Medium:  Ink on paper

Dimension：108.5 cm x 97.8 cm (calligraphy only)

                     115 cm x 104 cm (mounted)

Exhibition：HOME, 2021 Manchester International Festival, Great Britain, 2021.