The 2001 William G. Roehrick Lectures in the Fine Arts
in conjunction with Power of the Word
Xu Bing, installation artist, and Britta Erickson, independent scholar, will discuss Chinese and western art traditions on Feb. 24th, 2001, at 3:00 p.m., in the Chemistry Auditorium.
Bing, winner of a MacArthur prize in 1999, will give a presentation on his work and its place in both Chinese and contemporary western art traditions. Erickson will give a lecture entitled "The Place of Language in Chinese Art at the Close of the Millennium." Ms. Erickson has curated several exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art in the US and is currently working on a major exhibition for the Smithsonian.
Britta Erickson on Xu Bing:
"Asian culture is usually presented as something dead and glorious. Xu Bing demystifies it in delightful ways. There's also a subtle subversion of the art establishment in his work." (The New York Times, Sun. June 18th, 2000.)
Xu Bing on contemporary art and his own work:
A gap has opened up between contemporary art and its audience. Many people don't understand contemporary art, and they think they are the problem. But actually the problem is with contemporary art. I want to make work that engages the audience in a friendly way. I want the audience to become involved with the work.
In 1994 I produced Introduction to New English Calligraphy, which I first showed in Finland in 1996. It is a simulated classroom in which visitors may practice what seems to be traditional Chinese Calligraphy. When visitors first read the characters they are to copy, they think the characters are Chinese. However, when they become involved in the actual act of copying, they realize that the words are really characters composed of reconfigured Roman letters that spell out words in English, which they can read. The only way that they can achieve this experience is by finding a place between two languages, between two cultures.
Introduction to New English Calligraphy, the piece discussed in the quotation above, is on display at the Emerson Gallery through March 30th. (Art Journal, Fall 1999)
A reception at the Emerson Gallery will follow the presentations.
