Individual Presentation or Panel Title
Anxiety of the Unknown in Art: Xu Bing’s A Book from the Sky
Abstract
This project considers how Xu Bing’s 1988 A Book from the Sky—an installation art piece composed of books, scrolls, and banners written in pseudo-Chinese characters—is meant to raise questions in the viewer about its artistic significance but not directly answer them. Over time, shifts in society, culture, and politics have raised questions about whether the work acts as cultural commentary, as political commentary, as an active deconstruction of written language, or as commentary on obstruction of meaning. A Book from the Sky is a disorienting piece of installation art in which viewers face head on the questions it raises and are left actively seeking answers. However, through its design, the artist has virtually divested A Book from the Sky of inherent meaning altogether. I posit that the purpose of the piece is to reflect the viewer’s anxieties about the comprehension of language and information back onto themselves through its destabilization of space, written language, and personal cultural conceptions.
Location
Goodwin Private Dining Room
Start Date
30-4-2016 3:30 PM
End Date
30-4-2016 4:20 PM
Keywords
Xu Bing, installation art, contemporary
Anxiety of the Unknown in Art: Xu Bing’s A Book from the Sky
Goodwin Private Dining Room
This project considers how Xu Bing’s 1988 A Book from the Sky—an installation art piece composed of books, scrolls, and banners written in pseudo-Chinese characters—is meant to raise questions in the viewer about its artistic significance but not directly answer them. Over time, shifts in society, culture, and politics have raised questions about whether the work acts as cultural commentary, as political commentary, as an active deconstruction of written language, or as commentary on obstruction of meaning. A Book from the Sky is a disorienting piece of installation art in which viewers face head on the questions it raises and are left actively seeking answers. However, through its design, the artist has virtually divested A Book from the Sky of inherent meaning altogether. I posit that the purpose of the piece is to reflect the viewer’s anxieties about the comprehension of language and information back onto themselves through its destabilization of space, written language, and personal cultural conceptions.