A book from the sky - Xu Bing

Xu Bing

A book from the sky 1987–1991

Not Currently on Display

A book from the sky 1987–91 (also known as Tian shu) is composed of bound books covering the floor, and reams of paper draped overhead, recalling the daily papers in China, which are pasted on boards for all to read. These reams display around 4000 characters that were meticulously carved by Xu Bing. Paradoxically, although they look readable, all of the characters were invented by the artist.

Capturing the ambition and courage that characterised contemporary Chinese art of the period, this work toys with the venerated position held by the high art of calligraphy, suggesting that the aim of writing, which is to spread knowledge, has been subverted. Interpreted by authorities as an audacious statement, the work critically questions the notion of power and the collapse of political dialogue through the written word.

A book from the sky, which took Xu Bing some five years to create, exhibits a reverence for the discipline and reward of mastering text and the fundamental role that the process of writing words and texts can play in the way we engage with the world. Thus, Xu Bing’s epic work has been seen to return to the promise of text.

This magnificent installation symbolises aspects of both old and emerging China. While its medium and technique are traditional, A book from the sky’s scale and daring intellectual energy capture the spirit of contemporary artistic practice.

Born in 1955, Xu Bing has lived through numerous political campaigns: from the Hundred Flowers campaign of the mid 1950s in which Mao Zedong and the Communist Party reversed their initial stance on free expression, punishing those individuals who had opinions contrary to the government, torturing and imprisoning those found most objectionable, to the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) in which many intellectuals were banished to the countryside to learn ‘correct thinking’ through labour in the fields, or again, befell worse fates. After his parents were prosecuted for being capitalists in positions of authority, Xu Bing was sent to work in the countryside outside Beijing where he spent many evenings drawing portraits of his co-labourers.

After the death of Mao and the end of the Cultural Revolution, political and economic reforms improved people’s lives. Xu Bing enrolled at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1977 and during his studies, witnessed the burgeoning of artistic creativity and expression in which sanctioned guidelines were disregarded and exhibitions of new art held regularly. Xu Bing belongs to the New Wave of Fine Arts movement which, since its beginning in 1985, has seen the production of art which overtly denounces political oppression.

Xu BingA book from the sky 1987–1991

Xu Bing
A book from the sky 1987–1991