Xu Bing Returns to Suzhou Museum With Solo Exhibition 'False Garden, True Garden'
On July 22, contemporary artist Xu Bing opened his solo exhibition 'False Garden, True Garden' in the Modern Art Gallery of the Suzhou Museum, where it runs through October 22. It marks his return to the museum after twenty years: when its new building opened in 2006, architect I. M. Pei invited him to stage the inaugural exhibition, and his installation 'Background Story' became its centerpiece.
Built around space, light, illusion and copying, the show presents signature works in which dried plants, hemp fibers and other discarded materials are arranged behind frosted glass, casting shadows that read as traditional landscape paintings — until a closer look reveals only the materials themselves. The title echoes the 'Dream of the Red Chamber' line about truth and falsehood trading places, and continues Xu's decades-long inquiry into writing, images and reality.
Born in Chongqing in 1955 and raised in Beijing, Xu is best known for 'Book from the Sky,' written in more than four thousand invented pseudo-characters, and 'Book from the Ground,' composed entirely of universal symbols and icons. He lives and works between New York and Beijing, received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999, and his works are held by major museums worldwide. (GSM, based on public reporting)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：徐冰2011年在纽约出席活动。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons（CC BY-SA 4.0，James Yuanxin Li 摄）。Photo: Xu Bing in New York in 2011. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), photo by James Yuanxin Li.
