Art News

The Morgan Presents a Spectacular Installation by Xu Bing: The Living Word

NEW YORK, NY.- A reflection on language and the nature of writing has been at the core of Xu Bing’s art since the beginning of his career in China during the mid-1980s. It is therefore particularly fitting that the Morgan, a library as well as a museum, should present his spectacular installation, The Living Word, a poetic evocation of the relationship between the written word and its meaning. The exhibition will be on view through October 2, 2011. “In The Living Word,” Xu Bing explained, “the dictionary definition of niao (bird) is written on the gallery floor in the simplified text created by Mao. The niao characters then break away from the confines of the literal definition and take flight through the installation space. As they rise into the air, the characters gradually change from the simplified text to standardized Chinese text and finally to the ancient Chinese pictograph for ‘bird.’ The characters are rainbow color