Detail: Chinese artist Xu Bing spent more than
two years creating his newest work,
Phoenix Project, a massive installation
on view at the Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). At once
strange and fiercely beautiful, the
installation comprises two birds
fabricated entirely from materials found
at construction sites in Beijing. This
complementary exhibition at the Sackler
traces the evolution of Phoenix Project.
Reimagining an ancient Chinese motif, Xu
offers a view of the “new China” and the
labor conditions that support its
massive commercial and spatial
development. While the sculpture itself
remains at MASS MoCA, the Sackler
exhibition features materials used to
plan the work, including drawings, scale
models, and reconfigured construction
fragments. Also on view are related
objects selected by the artist from the
Freer and Sackler collections.