Xing Danwen

Early life

Xing Danwen was born in 1967 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China. Her parents worked as engineers in a state-owned energy company.^[3]

Education

The artist started her visual art practice with painting medium in her teens. From 1982-1986, she took a 4 years professional study in painting at the primary art school affiliated to Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts. From 1989-1992, she continued painting and did her BFA in Oil Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Art

In the late 80s, coincidentally she met photography and was immediately drawn into this medium. As a self-taught in photography, she was the one of a few artists in late 80s and 90s in China that was exploring the boundaries of photography and using photography as an art form. Through the camera, she observed and challenged the questions on the Chinese society, humanity, female identity and the generation that was born 60s. Xing documented the performance art movement among the East Village artists in Beijing in the early 1990s.^[4]

In 1998, she went to New York with a grant and fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council, New York. There, she did her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York with a chairman grant from SVA from 1998-2001.^[5]

This New York period challenged and enriched her artistic experience. In her current art practice she works, besides photography, also in the field of mixed media, video and multi-media installations.

Her artistic practice is both rich and varied and her subjects include: Dislocation between cultural status, conflicts between globalization and traditions, problematic environmental issues, the urban drama between the desire and reality. Fiction, truth and illusion often play an important role in her works.

Career

One of Xing's first major works was the series disConnexion (2002-2003), large-scale photographs of wires, circuit boards, and other computer waste exported from the United States to China's Guangdong Province.^[6]

Xing began her series Urban Fiction in 2004, which features photographs of architectural maquettes that Xing encountered at real-estate developers’ offices into which she inserted cutout figures that are enacting a scene of domestic drama.^[7] Urban Fiction has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as part of the exhibition "Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China", and at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.^[8]

In 2007, Xing continued her exploration of urban architecture and her relationship to the city of Beijing through the series Wall House.^[1]

A Personal Diary

1993-2003, Photographs

In A Personal Diary, Xing presents a highly poetic work that evinces her acute ability to inscribe China's alternative art scene in the 1990s into her own personal narrative.

We see the city through an eye disturbed by rapid urban development. It calls artists and their artworks from their studios to the streets, it witnesses the emergence of installation art in public spaces, and it accompanies and connects with performers in private apartments, evincing a strong, sensual closeness to them. The camera is frequently visible in the photographs, and so is the artist herself, as she captures people and events with an unmistakable passion for what is portrayed.

Born with Cultural Revolution

1995, B/W Photographs

I am a woman

1994-1996, B/W Photographs

SCROLL

1999-2000, B/W Photographs

Scroll is a series of panoramic photos of Beijing composed of many images that were shot in succession on 120 mm film. This method resulted in photos that are exceptionally long, narrow, and horizontal. The images were shot manually, without any computer manipulation or digitization. Danwen Xing relied on the film's original data, which she assembles into the final work.

Scroll A focuses on daily life and human activities in public spaces and Scroll B captures scenes of Beijing streets and buildings, resulting in haunting and poetic abstract images.

SLEEP WALKING

2001, two channel video installation

In Sleep Walking, Xing examines the effect of dislocation and how the mind can blur the distinctions between the past and the present, reality and fiction. The video weaves together images from different Western cityscapes accompanied by a soundtrack composed with Chinese traditional instruments and sounds of daily life in Chinese cities. The work implies a sense of loss and displacement, and evokes contending memories. Xing reconstructs reality, creating vigorous images infused with her visions of European Old Master paintings, the realities of these cities, and personal audial and visual memories.

disCONNEXION

2002-2003, Color Photographs

Xing's concerns are not only related to large cities. She has traveled to southern China to explore the effects of electronic trash recycling on villages and small cities in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province. In disCONNEXION, her critical eye and sharp lens examine the aesthetics of technological waste, reflecting environmental concerns, but more importantly, an anxiety about changes in the lives of workers along the south coast, whose ghosts can be sensed despite their absence from the frames.

DUPLICATION

2003, Color Photographs

DUPLICATION is a photography series staged in different toy factories across South China. Danwen Xing observed the entire toy production process and how designs are made for the international market to match the desires of people in every corner of the world. The toys are made to represent ideal beauty, but Xing deconstructs this by focusing her critical lens on the process and exploring the aesthetics of the identical parts.

Although the photos show only a fraction of the huge quantities of toy parts made in the factories, the work urges the eye to examine their differences and search for individuality.

Urban Fiction

2004 – present, photography with digital manipulation

In Urban Fiction, the city becomes unreal, synthetic, and almost empty of its inhabitants. The artist inserts theatrical scenes into a series of photographs of promotional models used by real estate companies, with her as the main actor in playful, fictitious incidents. Hovering between reality and fantasy, the scenes compensate for the sense of emptiness in exponentially-expanding cities.

Wall House

2007, Multimedia installation with photographs & video projection

In Wall House, Xing stages herself inside a building designed by John Hejduk in the Netherlands, and her lonely presence draws its magic from the urban landscapes of Chinese cities seen from the windows of the space. Captivated by her passion for the city, she summons it, and questions the reality of the borders between public, private, and subjective spaces.

Because I am in the Mountains

2017, Installation with Coal-coke and mixed materials

This sculpture presents a panoramic miniature of a contemporary landscape made from coal coke, the synthetic material that results from burning coal. In this work, Danwen Xing creates a contrast between the polluting medium and the scene depicted. Confusion is triggered by the divergence between the apparent disaster that is contemporary life and the beautiful vision of a natural landscape from traditional Chinese ink art. Xing expresses clear concern for the threatened nature, but more importantly, she borrows a phrase from Chinese philosophy: standing on Mount Lu means that one cannot see its true face. She engages with a visible symbolic complex, recognizing that it is impossible to observe objectively when we are lost within ourselves.

Thread

2017, Two-channel video with Sound, HD, 10 mins

In this new work, Thread, Xing examines the complexity of communication and connection between people. The artist and her mother serve as the main characters. On one screen are the aged hands of the artist’s mother, insistently knitting a dress with love and care, and on the other, the daughter wears the dress as it unravels with her movement. A feeling of liberation is evoked as the daughter’s body slowly becomes exposed but also fragile, and vulnerable.The daughter is trapped in the thread, but she moves forward with an uncontrolled drive. Although the two actions are separate and seem contradictory, the viewer senses a complicity between mother and daughter, as if they share an unspoken, secret understanding.

Solo and two person exhibitions

2017

• A Personal Diary, Warsaw MOMA, Poland
• Captive of Love, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China

2014

• UTOPIA, Officine dell'Immagine, Milan, Italy

2010

• A Personal Diary, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, USA
• Chinese Modernism and U.S. Vernacular-Xing Danwen & Jim Vecchi, arCH-Architecture Center Houston Foundation, USA
• Seeing Utopia, Past and Future-Xing Danwen & Wang Di, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, USA
• A Personal Diary, Modern Chinese Art Foundation, Gent, Belgium

2009

• A Personal Diary-China Avant-garde in 1990s, Modern Chinese Art Foundation, Gent, Belgium
• A Round Trip, Galerie SOLLERTIS, Toulouse, France
• Between the Walls, EPsite, Shanghai, China

2008

• The City Fairy, Korea Art Center, Busan, Korea
• Wall House, Project Space at Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, Australia
• Xing Danwen & Zeng Han, FOTOFEST 2008, Berring & James Gallery, Houston, USA

2007

• Roland Fischer/Xing Danwen", Galerie Sollertis, Toulouse, France

2006

• Urban Fiction, Gallery TPW, Toronto, Canada
• disCONNEXION/duplication, the Chinese Museum, Melbourne, Australia

2004

• disCONNEXION, Kiang Gallery, Atlanta, USA
• dis+dup, Gow Langsford gallery, Sydney, Australia
• Urban Fiction, Galerie Piece Unique, Paris, France

2002

• Dislocation, the 2nd PingYao International PhotoFestival, Shanxi, China
• China Avant-garde", Ka-sing Lee gallery, Toronto, Canada

2001

• Xing Danwen, Photo Festival at Galerie du château, Nice, France

1997

• IN SIGHT, SOHO Photo Gallery, New York, USA

1994

• WITH CHINESE EYES, PHOTONEWS at Gallery Grauwert, Hamburg, Germany

Selected group exhibitions

2017

• "40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography (1976-2017)", Three Shadows Beijing, China
• "ZUR NACHAHMUNG EMPFOHLEN! Expeditionen in Ästhetik & Nachhaltigkeit " (EXAMPLES TO FOLLOW! Expeditions in Aesthetics & Sustainability), Parque Cultural de Valparaiso, in Valparaiso, Chile
• "Breaking The Barrier", Xi'an Art Museum, China

2016

• In Focus: Electric! (works from the museum collection), GETTY CENTER, LA, USA
• M+ Sigg Collection: Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art, Hong Kong

2015

• "Lest The Two Seas Meet", Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland
• "Triennale Brugge 2015", Brugge, Belgium
• "HERE OUT THERE", Cable Factory space @ Helsinki Art Festival, Helsinki
• "The M+ Sigg Collection: Chinese art from the 1970s to now", The Whitworth Art Gallery, Mancheste, UK
• "Grain to Pixel: A Story of Photography in China", Shanghai Center of Photography (SCôP), Shanghai, China
• "Dislocation: Urban Experience in Contemporary East Asian Photography, Smith College Museum of Art, USA
• "Inward Gazes: Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art 2015", The Old Court by Macau Art Museum, Macau

2014

• Right Is Wrong: Four Decades of Chinese Art from the M+ Sigg Collection, Bildmuseet, Umea University, Umea Sweden
• Convergences: Selected Photographs from the Permanent Collection, the J. Paul Getty Museum, L.A, USA
• Where is China?, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, Portugal
• New Photos Since 2009, Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan, China
• HYPER-RESEMBLANCES, MODA Curates 2014, The Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, USA
• One & Three, Project Space at CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China

2013

• Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
• 1st Beijing Photo Biennale, Millennium Museum of Art, Beijing, China
• Breakthrough: Work by Contemporary Chinese Women Artists, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick Maine, USA
• PANORAMA DEL PAISAJE, FOTOGRÁFICA BOGOTÁ 2013, FOTOMUSEO – National Museum of Photography of Colombia, Bogota
• Making It Up: Photographic Fictions, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
• Women: Contemporary Chinese Art, The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis, USA

2012

• imPOSSIBLE * Video works of Chinese contemporary artists, Cultural Center Kühlhaus, Berlin, Germany
• MINIMAL, Hå gamle prestegard, Hå kommune, Norway
• ZUR NACHAHMUNG EMPFOHLEN! Expeditionen in Ästhetik & Nachhaltigkeit. (EXAMPLES TO FOLLOW! Expeditions in Aesthetics & Sustainability), Mumbai, India; Addis Abeba, Ethiopia; Iberia Art Center, Beijing, China

2011

• MASTERS OF CHINESE PHOTOGRAPHY, Poligono Gallery, Malaga, Spain
• Half the Sky: Women in the New Art ofChina, The New Leonard Pearlstein Gallery,DrexelUniversity,Philadelphia,US
• Highrise – Idea and Reality, The Museum für Gestaltung (Museum of Design Zurich), Zürich, Switzerland
• ZUR NACHAHMUNG EMPFOHLEN!Expeditionen in Ästhetik & Nachhaltigkeit, The federal Environment Agency in Dessau; 3 locations in Bavaria, Germany

2010

• ZUR NACHAHMUNG EMPFOHLEN! Expeditionen in Ästhetik & Nachhaltigkeit, Uferhallen Berlin, Germany
• Remaking Vision, Travelling Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Photography, world tour
• The Butterfly Effect: An Artistic Communication Project of Cross-strait Four-regions, Hexiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
• Love Lines, RedLine, Denver, Colorado, USA

2009

• Wonder World-Expecting a restless future, Moscow Biennale, EKATERINA Cultural Foundation, Moscow, Russia
• Still Life, Palais Des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
• ATTITUDES, La Centrale électrique, Brussels, Belgium
• Up Close Far Away, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany
• imPOSSIBLE, San Francisco Arts Commission and MISSION17, San Francisco, USA
• Stairway to Heaven, H&R Block Artpace at the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, USA
• Action-Camera: Beijing Performance Photography, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2008

• Strategies for Concealing, C-Space, Beijing, China
• New World Order, Groninger Museum, the Netherlands
• Another Voice, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
• FOTOFEST 2008, Houston, Texas, USA
• ING REAL Photography Award, LP II Art Exhibition Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• China Design Now, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

2007

• City of Expiration and Regeneration, 2007 Shenzhen Biennal, China
• Chinaproduction, Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna, Austria
• Floating, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
• Thought Provoking, Sense Provoking, Noorderlicht, Groningen, The Netherlands
• Altered States, Tisch Gallery, AIDEKMAN ARTS CENTER / TUFTS University, USA
• METAMORPHOSIS, Tampere Art Museum, Tampere, Finland
• MADE in CHINA, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
• The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

2006

• Xing Danwen / China Show, URBIS, Manchester, UK
• TOTALSTADT/BEIJING CASE, ZKM, Karisruhe, Germany
• C On Cities, 10th Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy
• New Urban Realities, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam & NAi, The Netherlands
• Fantasy Landscapes, Asia House, London, UK
• MADE in CHINA, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA

2005

• Urban / Culture, CP Biennale, Museum Bank Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
• Traces and Omens, the 12th Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Groningen, the Netherlands
• The WALL, Albright-Knox Art Gallery/UB Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, USA
• Unspeakable Happiness, MUSEO TAMAYO ARTE CONTEMPORANEO, Mexico city, Mexico
• On the Edge, Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, California, USA
• Between Past and Future, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
• Re-VIEWING the CITY, 1st Guangzhou Photo Biennale, Guangdong Museum of Art, China

2004

• Grotesque Reality, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
• GRAVITY, the Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
• Die Chinesen, Kunst Museum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
• REASON & EMOTION, the Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
• Between Past and Future, International Center for Photography & Asian Society, New York, USA
• Smart Museum of Art & Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
• Je t’envisage: La disparition du portrait, the Musee de l'Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland

2003

• Chinese Maximalism, UB Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA
• Les Rencontres d’Arles Festival, Arles, France
• the American Effects, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
• Alors, la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
• Spatial Narrative, Japan Society, New York, USA

2002

• Re-interpretation, A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art, 1st Guangzhou Triennial,
• Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
• Queens International, Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA

2001

• Mega Wave-Towards a New Synthesis, 1st YOKOHAMA TRIENNIAL, Yokohama, Japan
• 1st Tirana Biennale, Tirana, Albania

1999

• BEIJING-The Revolutionary Capital, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
• Transience-Chinese Experimental Art at the end of the 20th Century, the Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, USA