17. Artistic research 3

Yin Xiuzhen

Yin Xiuzhen's work explores themes of the past and present, memory, globalization, and homogenization.

Yin Xiuzhen currently lives and works in Beijing. Yin began her career after earning a BA from Capital Normal University’s Fine Arts Department, Beijing, in 1989. She is best known for her sculptures and installations comprising secondhand objects like clothing, shoes, and suitcases. Inspired by the rapidly changing cultural environment of her native Beijing, Yin arranges and reconfigures these recycled items to draw out their individual and collective histories. Her assembled materials operate as sculptural documents of memory, alluding to the lives of individuals who are often neglected in the drive toward rapid development, excessive urbanization, and the growing global economy.

In 2014, Phaidon published a monograph on Yin as part of their Contemporary Artist series, making her the second female Asian artist to ever be selected. Yin’s work is invested in exploring cultural memory and the scale of change that occurred in China in the late twentieth century, particularly in how a more international economy and new attitudes toward urbanism have created environments where traditions and objects are treated as ephemeral or disposable.

Ceremonial Instruments No. 5, 2016 Porcelain, used clothes,45 x 30 x 53.5 cm (7 11/16 x 11 13/16 x 21 1/16 inches)

Trojan, 2016-2017, steel frame, used clothes, 570 cm × 220 cm × 470 cm (18' 8-7/16" × 86-5/8" × 15' 5-1/16")

Bookshelf No. 5, 2009-2013, Worn clothes and wood, 165.5 cm x 96 cm x 26 cm (65-3/16" x 37-13/16" x 10-1/4")

https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/yin-xiuzhen/