The Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in collaboration with the Groninger Museum is presenting the first major solo exhibition in Europe dedicated to the work of Chinese contemporary artist Yin Xiuzhen.
The exhibition begins with Yin’s early installations that are often presented in uninhabited, untouched landscapes and now exist in the shape of photographic documentations. The show focuses, however, on the expansive installations as well as the recent monumental, accessible, textile installations that represent a watershed in Yin’s oeuvre.
Yin’s works from the 1990s, for example Washing River (1995), are strongly motivated by politics when she broaches the theme of the consequences of industry and technology on nature and the people: A performance is documented in photographs in which Chinese citizens “wash” dirty water that has been frozen into a rectangular block of ice with sponges until the ice melts.
Since the late 1990s, the artist has produced large-scale installation using old clothing, shoes, furniture and simple construction material like cement and stone, often in public spaces. By selecting airplanes, automobiles and highways as the motifs for her large sculptures made of second hand clothing, the artist calls attention to the seeming limitlessness of mobility and the fast-moving pace of today’s globalised world.