By Yin Xiuzhen
The opening-up of China has created a state of flux and movement between itself and the external world and, along with globalization, placed a lot of people in a lifestyle of constant travel. Spaces such as airports, platforms and transit stations have become a kind of 'third space'. It acts as a point of transition, transfer and transit, and divides time into segments in a such a way that it resembles the accelerated 'time' that we see in front of the computer. These spaces are neutral almost all the airports in the world look alike. Within this space, the original space and time, as well as psychological, identity and cultural distinctions, are caused to shift and alter.
The act of entering a space also means exiting another. In this sense, this critical point of entrance is both an entrance and an exit. Within this space of exchange, the question lies in whether one is prepared to be examined, or ready for self-examination. This 'entrance' is also a third space within a third space it becomes a space of short duration that one is forced to confront, and while passing it, our minds are made blank. To be at an entrance is also a phenomenon of this era of globalization and terrorism; we are in fact constantly living at the point
of entrance.
The purpose of my work Entrance: A Continuous Space is to present the 'entrance' as an on-going space, so that it creates different effects in different spaces, and just as in a soap opera where the plot is a continuous development, it becomes a continuous and serialized entity.
For this work I constructed a large baggage screener (of the same size as an actual screening machine) within which is a space and possibility for transformations and movement, turning this entrance for the scanning of dangerous items into a multi-purpose 'third space'. This area of ambiguity forms a relationship with the existing space that in turn zfills the blank minds of people who are in transit.
Changes and Histories □ By Leng Lin
With an exceptional sensitivity and insight displayed in her work, Yin Xiuzhen depicts a unique individualistic attitude and new approach to history resulting from the rapid developments of the 1990s in China. In 1994, with a large output of works, she makes her official appearance as an artist on the Chinese contemporary art scene.
Her works can be divided into two categories those which revolve around her personal experience and lifestyle, and those which draw attention to certain public themes by integrating the works with specific exhibition locations. In works such as Suitcase, Wool, and Yin Xiuzhen, she directly introduces elements of her personal life. In Suitcase, the suitcases and clothes are items that the artist herself has used in everyday life - using cement to fix the position of the clothes inside suitcases, she cements and creates a form of personal memento. Here the irreplaceable quality of personal values and experience is highlighted. It is notable that with today's rapid developments, and particularly in the unique post-socialist society of China, the daily routines of individuals are gradually being transformed into conditions of unpredictability and impermanence. While commemorating daily life, Yin Xiuzhen's works reflect on the one hand the rapid outdatedness of daily experiences caused by social changes; on the other, her emphasis on personal history, and the unrepeatable experience of discovering personal meanings.
On par with works focusing on individual experiences are projects that merge with special venues, such as Washing the River, Breda Room No.18 and Dining Table. In this type of works, Yin Xiuzhen uses public participation as an important element of the project. Through her research on the history and current situation of selected locations, and with a unique insight and sensitivity to daily life, she attracts the public to her projects, whose participation is key to the completion of these works. During this process, the public often readjusts the displayed image of themselves. In the project 'Washing the River' in collaboration with Siemens, between the process of washing the frozen polluted river and the daily imagination of sexual fantasies in the workspace, the public participants experience a magnified state of daily living. Through these projects of public participation, she continuously collects different individual experiences of the participants and at the same time, redirects the same experiences to the lives of these people, in some ways creating a new form of culture.
In both categories, Yin Xiuzhen invariably uses the elements of 'change' and 'history' as the basic points of display in her works; the aspects of change and history have become the most significant characteristics of her work. In our contemporary society of endless changes and rapid developments, Yin Xiuzhen's work that speaks of history of and change appears exceptional and unusual. The strong personal character in her work brings the concreteness of reality into the realms of daily living; one could experience this process as well as the resulting profound changes. In the work 'Beijing Opera' in 2000, Yin Xiuzhen transforms emotions into a specific search for certain values as she deliberately displays the self-entertaining opera singing of old people in streets of Beijing, the confidence they evoke from their unhurried singing creates a sharp contrast with the rapid changes of the environment they are in. From this singing and daily living reality conveys an attitude that embraces, instead of opposes, the current history. This attitude of embracing history of our time aptly reflects the unique circumstances of contemporary China it does not doubt, but is instead full of confidence; it searches for the other side of contemporary living through symbolic acts of history. Contemporary is no longer a synonym of 'development' or 'speed'; contemporary is itself a lifestyle, a kind of practical living through continuous experiences. In 'Beijing Opera', Yin Xiuzhen has transcended individualistic factors in the attempt to establish certain values in the public arena. In the field of Chinese contemporary art, where very few people have this ability and accomplishment, Yin Xiuzhen is undoubtedly an extremely important artist.