On July 6, 2013, “Mutual Affinity” – Exhibition of Postgraduates of Xu Bing, elaborately organized by Taipei Eslite Gallery officially opened in Taiwan. It was planned by Xu Bing, a well-known artist, Deputy President of CAFA, and features the works of Xu Bing’s masters and PhD of CAFA, including: Kong Xi, Wu Lin, Piao Meili, Geng Xue, Zhang Wenchao, Zhang Xiaoxue, and Yang Hongwei. The works are in various forms, showing a unique face of each person. Including some artists’ works that are in the collection of important domestic and international art museums.

Kong Xi was born in Qufu, Shandong Province. Professor Xu Bing initially recruited him as a postgraduate, studying in the Department of Printmaking. He features two works, building a very intrinsic relationship with printmaking. “Come, Go” and “Gilded Body” complement each other, which are associated with the surfaces of a limb. During his study in the school, “Come, Go” was collected by CAFA Art Museum and the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford.

Born in Harbin, Wu Lin graduated from the Woodcut Studio of the Department of Printmaking. Her creation of book “Tiny World” automatically flips itself, “A man doesn’t wait for a book, while a book doesn’t wait for a man”. The book tells two quite magical stories, in addition selections of the paintings of the book were produced into six etchings. Included are prints that are collected by CAFA Art Museum and Eslite Gallery.

Born in Seoul, Piao Meili comes from South Korea to study. The creative theme of the exhibition is “presence”, which is continuous, cyclical, repeating coexistence, by baking varnish on an aluminum sheet the result is very special, an atmospheric feel.

Geng Xue graduated from the High School Affiliated with CAFA, and the Department of Sculpture, CAFA, currently being a postgraduate student of Xu Bing. Her work “Growth” is a program design in the use of code, when a viewer inputs a text, and even a conversation, a corresponding symbol of a plant will be produced, and projected on the wall. Along with the increasing characters, the plants on the wall form a beautiful large garden.

Zhang Wenchao graduated from the High School Affiliated with CAFA and the Digital Media Studio of CAFA, currently being a postgraduate student of Xu Bing. His works “Unknown Journey” talk about the experiences and memories of life, with the use of electronic patterns, he draws the fragments of personal experiences, which are linked to reflect that Beijing is a changing city.

Zhang Xiaoxue graduated from the High School Affiliated with CAFA and the Woodcut Studio of the Department of Printmaking, CAFA, currently a postgraduate student of Xu Bing. Her works’ title is “Yan/ Derivatives”, using a woodcut knife to tattoo ink into a silica gel, she believes, current society has a property of silica gel, collagen surface of even texture, while the internal supporting structure is in second place.

Yang Hongwei is a young teacher from the Department of Printmaking, CAFA, and a PhD student of Xu Bing. His woodcut “Millennium Monument” (11 meters long) was the first long scroll of his creation. It was initially conceived in 2008 and took to September 2010 to complete, which tells the stories not until the end of the world in the prophecy, in 2012. In addition, it showcases “Wonderland”, and his latest works “Pixel Analysis”.

With various students, Xu Bing has a special teaching method, he said, “When teaching them, I must initially enter into their worlds; each of them is different and unique, is a treasure; it’s necessary to enter into their worlds to find how to develop them, where are the barriers? Sometimes, it needs to completely disrupt the already formed patterns, intermediate regions or broken places, rebuilding them, in order to reactivate them. It’s pleasing to see the process and result of the entanglements between their personalities and art. It can also help me correct my understanding on many issues”.

“It’s really interesting, the exchanges between thought and spirit, and it sometimes needs to be stimulated, sometimes feint, sometimes pushed into a corner, sometimes protected as it is gentle as the tentacles of a snail, which perhaps draws back for ever, sometimes by use of the means of 'Book from Heaven', to communicate through a refusal to communicate.” Perhaps this is the connotation of “Mutual Affinity”, the title of the exhibition.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO