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• Daniel added exhibition stills (images of where it was shown) to this page. Decide whether they are needed. Maybe not.
• Daniel added exhibition stills (images of where it was shown) to this page. Decide whether they are needed. Maybe not.
Xu Bing: Phoenix
Chinese artist Xu Bing spent two years building Phoenix, two monumental birds made from the debris of construction sites in urban China.
Chinese artist Xu Bing spent two years creating Phoenix: two monumental birds fabricated from demolition debris, steel beams, tools and the remnants of migrant laborers’ daily lives, harvested from construction sites in urban China.
The film documents the making of the work through to its installation at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). At once fierce and strangely beautiful, the phoenixes bear witness to the entanglement of labor, history, commercial development and the rapid accumulation of wealth in contemporary China.
The film documents the making of the work through to its installation at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). At once fierce and strangely beautiful, the phoenixes bear witness to the entanglement of labor, history, commercial development and the rapid accumulation of wealth in contemporary China.
LanguageEnglish and Mandarin with English subtitles
Director/ProducerDaniel Traub
EditorScott A. Burgess
CinematographyDaniel Traub, Rick Widmer, Tian Li
MusicBenjamin Kaplan and Hildur Guðnadóttir
Produced in association with the Freer|Sackler and Xu Bing Studio
DistributionIcarus Films
ScreeningsMASS MoCA · Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington, DC · Crow Museum of Asian Art, Dallas · Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York · United Art Museum, Wuhan · International Film Festival of Cinematic Arts