| Works in Xiao Yu’s exhibition Turn Around are not attached to any particular social context and knowledge. In these works, Xiao is obviously evading any textual meaning, which is often an unavoidable part in many works of Chinese contemporary art. In an unexpected way, the artist successfully appropriated the rich oriental quality of bamboo as a cultural symbol. Bamboo in the exhibition is flexible as water, still as mountain; its contours are sometimes light as soaring birds, ferocious as lurking tigers, or calm as caterpillars. Toughness and integrity, cruelty and tenderness coexist in Xiao’s work. The work is independent of the decoding of meaning—it evokes an experience in viewers, based on their instinct and meditation through their visual reaction. |  |
Beijing Commune
Works in Xiao Yu’s exhibition Turn Around are not attached to any particular social context and knowledge. In these works, Xiao is obviously evading any textual meaning, which is often an unavoidable part in many works of Chinese contemporary art. In an unexpected way, the artist successfully appropriated the rich oriental quality of bamboo as a cultural symbol. Bamboo in the exhibition is flexible as water, still as mountain; its contours are sometimes light as soaring birds, ferocious as lurking tigers, or calm as caterpillars. Toughness and integrity, cruelty and tenderness coexist in Xiao’s work. The work is independent of the decoding of meaning—it evokes an experience in viewers, based on their instinct and meditation through their visual reaction.
One of the significant concerns of Beijing Commune is building new methodology and self-consciousness in Chinese contemporary art. Beijing Commune is always in search of new possibilities of contemporary art in a Chinese context. From the Terrazzo series by Wang Guang-Le to the Blank Paper series by Liu Jian-Hua, Beijing Commune has held numerous exhibitions, trying to identify the hidden awareness of traditional Chinese culture in contemporary art beneath the bustling surface of China’s art scene. Xiao’s Turn Around is an exhibition that expresses the artist’s passion through calmness, not unlike the way of Chinese calligraphy. From the way the artist treats bamboo as a form of presentation instead of its symbolic meaning, one can easily see the artist’s focus on the spirit of traditional aesthetics and his reflections on contemporary art.
