Detail: Drawing inspiration from the contemporary realities of his fast-changing country, Chinese artist Xu Bing spent two years creating his newest work, Phoenix.
The installation features two monumental birds fabricated entirely from materials harvested from construction sites in urban China, including demolition
debris, steel beams, tools, and remnants of the daily lives of migrant laborers. At once fierce and strangely beautiful, the mythic Phoenixes bear witness
to the complex interconnection between labor, history, commercial development, and the rapid accumulation of wealth in today's China.
This is the premier appearance of the sculpture outside China (the works were exhibited briefly outdoors at the Today Art Museum in Beijing, and then at
Expo10 in Shanghai). At MASS MoCA, the internally illuminated 12-ton birds are suspended mid-air inside the museum’s football field-sized Building 5;
dwarfing visitors, the male Phoenix Feng measures 90 feet long, while the female Huang reaches 100 feet in length, beak to (steel) tail feathers.
Phoenix is the centerpiece of an exhibition of related art by Xu Bing, widely considered to be among the most important Chinese artists working today.