Existing comment:
Xu Bing to Raymond Gloeckler, ca 1990:
In 1989 students across China demonstrated against the Communist government's martial laws enacted at the expense of human rights. As a form of protest, artist Xu Bing (b 1955) created "A Book from the Sky" (1987-91). He gifted a page from the work to his art instructor Raymond Gloeckler. The apparent Chinese characters are not really Chinese at all; rather they are "characters" that Xu created to challenge conventional structures of language, authenticity, and power. |