Mundane and Dramatic Xu Bing

Dragonfly Eyes. 2017. China. Directed by Xu Bing. © Xu Bing Studio

MoMA presents Xu Bing’s Dragonfly Eyes, on view from September 21st-27th.

In a country with an estimated 200 million surveillance cameras installed, one’s eyes are trained not to notice or think about the reality they record. Visual artist Xu Bing, however, has a different approach. He mixed the unfiltered life that such cameras record with dramatic events beyond the realm of imagination. Mundane life and surreal narrative stitched together in his feature film, present a fictional tale about a young woman traversing life in modern China. Known for works, that disrupt our understanding of what we see, this time Xu Bing continues to explore the relationship between vision and meaning.