Chambers Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening on June 11, 2011 of The Way of Chopsticks III by Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen, their third joint exhibition at Chambers Fine Art. Widely regarded as two of China’s most prominent conceptually oriented artists, the husband and wife team have pursued independent careers since the mid-1990s and have continued to do so until the present day. Although united by a commonality of interests, their individual bodies of work are highly distinctive in character as can be seen from two recent solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Song Dong’s Waste Not (2009) and Yin Xiuzhen’s Collective Subconscious (2010).
Working together for the first time in 2002, they chose the theme of chopsticks as, whether picking up a grain of rice or a more sizeable morsel of food, two chopsticks are essential . As a symbol of their long-standing personal and professional relationship, the humble pair of chopsticks was an essential element in Chopsticks, their first exhibition at Chambers Fine Art New York which they characterized as an exploration of the “theme of Eating, Drinking, Playing and Happiness.” The working method they established whereby once certain rules were established, they did not know what the other was making were developed in The Way of Chopsticks, 2006 which included monumental chopsticks, 8 meters in length, as well as cross-sections and paintings inspired by the ubiquitous security warnings in the United States. The following year their contribution to Net, the first exhibition at Chambers Fine Art Beijing, was Chopsticks # 3, elevated above the courtyard of the gallery in Caochangdi, one of which (Song Dong’s) emits fine rain and the other (Yin Xiuzhen’s) contains an electrocardiogram made of red neon light.
For the current exhibition The Way of Chopsticks III, and following the working procedures already established in the prior exhibitions, Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen will each design a monumental pair of chopsticks, 12 meters in length, divided into twelve sections. Working independently of each other, Song Dong was inspired by the beam of a house for his chopstick while Yin Xiuzhen turned to the structure of a crane. In previous exhibitions the contrasting visions of both artists were revealed through juxtaposition of similar forms. Here there is a new spatial dynamism between the pairs of dissimilar elements, a symbol perhaps of the evolving nature of the relationship between husband and wife who only work together when they return periodically to the theme of Chopsticks.
Since 2002 Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen have exhibited widely, with major museum and gallery exhibitions in New York, Beijing and elsewhere. At the same time as their work has become more ambitious, however, it has never strayed far from its source of inspiration in deeply personal relationships with family, friends and their immediate environment. In that respect, it is touchingly old-fashioned. This progression can be seen from a comparison between the artist – designed catalogs published for Chopsticks in 2002 and for The Way of Chopsticks III in 2011, distinguished by its dual spiral ring binders. The earlier catalog was cut and pasted and deliberately hand-made in quality, unlike the current one which is ingeniously designed to present simultaneously the respective contributions of Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen. It is also conceived as a summation of the “Chopstick Period” of their work, republishing Wu Hung’s seminal essay of 2002, John Tancock’s unpublished essay of 2006 and a new interpretation by Phillip Tinari.
北京前波画廊非常荣幸地宣布将于2011年6月11日起举办宋冬和尹秀珍的《筷道III》，这将是两位艺术家在前波画廊的第三次合展。作为以中国当代最为杰出的观念艺术家，夫妻两人从九十年代中期至今，一直在各自的艺术生涯中独立创作。尽管两人分享众多共同的兴趣爱好，他们的作品却各有其独到之处，比如宋冬2009年在纽约现代美术馆（Museum of Modern Art）的展览《物尽其用》以及尹秀珍2010年在同一美术馆的展览《集体潜意识》就是很好的例子。
两位艺术家第一次合作是2002年，为在纽约前波画廊的首次合展《筷子》创作，他们选择了筷子作为主题，因为在中国无论是夹一粒米饭还是一块大的食物，两根筷子总是必不可少的。艺术家不仅用一双不起眼的筷子来象征两人之间长期以来亲密的夫妻关系以及艺术职业生涯中的相互支持，也借筷子来探索有关“吃、喝、玩、乐”的主题。他们达成了协议，除了尺寸等一些共享的参数外，他们不交流彼此的想法与制作过程。在为2006年纽约前波画廊的合展《筷道II》创作时，于是展览中包括了一双同是八米长、设计和材料却十分不同的筷子，以及几对由美国安全警告装置等启发的画和筷子截面。一年后他们为北京前波画廊的开幕展《网》创作了《筷子 #3》，一双巨型的筷子凌空架在草场地画廊的前院上方，宋冬创作的那根筷子喷出雾气和雨水，而尹秀珍的那根则含有一个由红色霓虹灯制成的心电图图形。
此次展览《筷道III》继承了之前几个合展的制作程序，宋冬与尹秀珍各自独立创作了一双12米长、每根由12截组成的巨型筷子，只有在作品全部完成后才能作相互交流。此次宋冬的创作灵感来源于房梁，而尹秀珍却受了起重机臂架的启发。艺术家各取出一根组成一双完整的筷子展出，而每双筷子剩下的那根分成12截分开展览。于是，宋冬的每截“断梁”和尹秀珍的每截“断臂”又各组成了12对各不相同的作品，这也许象征了夫妻间多样的关系。两人在回到“筷子”这一主题上时，又一起共同合作了。
自2002年以来，宋冬与尹秀珍的作品在纽约，北京和其他各地的博物馆及画廊广泛地展出，作品的规模也日益壮观。然而他们作品的灵感仍来源于家庭，朋友和身边的环境，这种相对传统的创作思路不禁让人感动。两位艺术家共同制作的画册也体现了他们职业生涯中发生的变化。2002年的画册《筷子》经过两位艺术家的剪贴，有手工制作的效果。而此次出版的画册《筷道III》两侧各由螺旋环装订，一侧介绍宋冬的创作，另一侧介绍尹秀珍的作品，于是两人的合作被巧妙地结合在同一本书中。此画册同时也是对“筷道”这一创作时期的总结，重新发表了巫鸿2002年的文章，唐冠科2006年尚未发表的文章以及田霏雨对两位艺术家的合作的全新诠释。