The Horse Keeps Running

Xu Bing(China)

Born in Chongqing, China in 1955 and raised in Beijing, Xu Bing was relocated to the countryside for two years during the Cultural Revolution. In 1977, he enrolled in the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he studied printmaking. He received an MFA from the Central Academy in 1987. In 1990, he moved to the United States, where he still lives today, making his home in Brooklyn.

Xu Bing's work has been shown at the 45th and 51st Venice Biennials; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Ludwig, Koln; The Reina Sofia Museum (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia), Madrid; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Sydney Biennial, Australia; Kwangju Biennial, Korea; Johannesburg Biennial, South Africa; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF MoMA); National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; ICC – International Communications Center, Tokyo; P.S. 1, New York; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. He has had solo exhibitions at the New Museum of Contemporary art, New York; Joan Miro Foundation (Fundacio Pilari Joan Miro a Mallorca), Spain; ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), London; National Gallery of Prague; the National Gallery of Beijing; the North Carolina Museum of Art; Berlin National East Asian Art Museum, Germany; and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Over the years, Xu Bing's work has appeared in high-school and college text-books around the world including Abram's Art Past – Art Present, Gardner's Art Through the Ages and Oxford Art History: Chinese Art. In 1999, Xu Bing was awarded the MacArthur Award for Genius by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in recognition of his "…originality, creativity, self-direction, and capacity to contribute importantly to society, particularly in printmaking and calligraphy." In 2003 Xu Bing was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize for his work in Asian Art and Culture.

In 2004, Xu Bing was awarded the first Wales International Visual Art Prize, Artes Mundi, one of the largest international prizes in the world. And in that year he also became the first Coca-Cola Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. In 2005, he was presented with Youth Friends Award by The New York City Department of Education and the School Art League and was listed in 2004-2005 Art in America Annual Guide. In 2006, the Southern Graphics Council, the largest printmakers' organization in the United States, awarded Xu Bing their lifetime achievement award in recognition of the fact that his, "use of text, language and books has impacted the dialogue of the print and art worlds in significant ways." 2006 also saw the publication of "Persistence/Transformation: Text as Image in the Art of Xu Bing" a multidisciplinary study of Xu Bing's landmark work "Book from the Sky" by the Princeton University Press. In 2007, Xu Bing's installation "Any Opinons?" at Wellesley College was awarded "Best Installation or Single Work of Art in a Museum, New England" by the United States section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA USA).

In January 2008, Xu Bing was named Vice President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing his alma mater.

Design Synopsis of The Horse Keeps Running

Square Word Calligraphy is a fusion of written English and written Chinese. The letters of an English word are slightly altered and arranged in a square word format so that the word takes on the ostensible form of a Chinese character, yet remains legible to the English reader. While undergoing a process of estrangement and re-familiarization with one's written language, the audience is reminded that the sensation of distance between other systems of language and one's own is largely self-induced. It is a medium that most aptly expresses the unique qualities of identity and culture that characterize Hong Kong.

For this work, the artist has created a humorous poem entitled The Horse Keeps Running from the names of popular Hong Kong racehorses. The names of these horses vividly, humorously, richly, accurately and profoundly reflect the collective ideals, hopes, culture and tastes of the people of Hong Kong. The title is taken from a succinct yet eloquent phrase spoken by Deng Xiaoping on the occasion of Hong Kong's reunification with the Mainland in 1997.

The work: during the day it appears as a wall completely devoid of contents, but as the sun sets, the full text of The Horse Keeps Running written in "Square Word Calligraphy" slowly illuminates its surface.

Information provided by Sun Hung Kai Properties Charitable Fund Limited.

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