Yin Xiuzhen
Yin Xiuzhen
Born in Beijing, China in 1963. In 1989 she graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Capital Normal University, Beijing. Lives and works in Beijing.
2006 The Way of Chopsticks, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA
2007 Yin Xiuzhen in Beijing Commune, Beijing Commune, Beijing, China
2007 Chinese Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2007, Venice, Italy
2008 Yin Xiuzhen : Introspective Cavity, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2010 Second Skin, Pace Beijing, China; Project 92, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2010 Dreamlands, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2011 Our Magic Hour: Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, Japan
2012 The First Kiev International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kiev, Ukraine
2012 Yin Xiuzhen, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands; Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf, German
Bookshelf
Chinese scholar Su Shi used to say that even Confucius starts learning by reading books. Everyone’s personal experience is just like thick volumes of books.
I always consider clothes as the second skin of people. Starting from 1995, I have been using old clothes as material and elements to create The Suitcase. I sealed my old clothes from the past thirty years into the suitcase handmade by my father. Over the past ten years, I have collected numerous experiences (old clothes) from people in different countries. Experience is not to be reproduced. But when I seal the experience together, there starts a new adventure.
I collected the bookshelves from different places. I have made “new clothes” for them to keep their body in the warm texture. The books are from old clothes I collected, which are actually miniature of people’s experience. Those clothes still keep the temperature of spirit, which comes from the body they used to cover.