Cang Xin is a Beijing-based performance and conceptual artist active since the mid-90s, when he was one of the "East Village" community of experimental artists who became notorious for the sometimes extreme physicality of their performance work. A participating in the group performance To Add One Meter to an Unknown Mountain, which has since become one of the defining images of Chinese contemporary art (and is reproduced here), Cang Xin began to find his own artistic identity in the 1994 work Trampling Faces. Like much of his later work, it explored issues of Self and Other in a way that was both ceremonial and spontaneous, always depending on the participation of others for completion. In the Communication series, ongoing since 1996, the artist has used his tongue to experience elements of the material world from small everyday items to monumental cultural symbols. And in Identity Exchange, he does just that, assuming the visual identity of other people by means of borrowing their clothing; thus artist becomes Peking Opera performer, policeman, mental patient, chef, hostess, and vice-versa.

Cang Xin: Existence In Translation (Chinese Edition)

Arts & Photography

Qi, Zhu

Tsong-Zung, Chang

Boyi, Feng

Du, Huang

Maggio, Meg

Individual Artists

Timezone 8

Chen Wenbo: Urban Verses

Jianchun, Li

History & Criticism

Blue Kingfisher

For the past 20 years, Chinese artist Sheng Qi has been creating remarkable works of art in diverse media, approximately 100 of which are showcased here in full color. A prevalent theme in his work has been the study of the body: of body language and its culture. (When he left Beijing in 1989, he cut the little finger off of his left hand and buried it in a flower pot.) Since returning to China after completing his artistic studies in London, he has been selected to participate in the Nippon International Performance Festival, and the recent International Center of Photography exhibition, Between Past and Future, where his photographic work was selected for the cover of the exhibition catalogue. He is also one of the few artists in China to concern himself with AIDS and to become involved in local awareness campaigns.

Sheng Qi: Madness, Appropriation

Hanru, Hou

Keidan, Lois

Ming'an, Wang

No informed conversation about the development of Chinese performance art can bypass Sheng Qi, whose work remains unusual, brave and adventurous. By 1986 he had already thrown himself into a pioneering practice, working in symbolic locations including Peking University (1986), the Yuanmingyuan (1987) and on the Great Wall (1988). Those seminal events were important contributions to a young field, and looking back at their documentation, readers will feel Sheng Qi's passion for art and for the intense cultural transgression his works represented in their time. More recently, he has begun with portraits of children in a rigorous academic painting style, and through their "destruction" and "revision," constructed a painting language that explores the aesthetics of violence and criticism, and their commonalities.

Sheng Qi: Confidential

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Du, Huang. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Du, Huang