Artist Yin Xiuzhen uses her work One Piece of Highway to open a dialogue with Beuys in the fourth exhibition of the ongoing project "Me & Beuys", which will open on March 27th, 2021.
When ordinary life is on an accelerated pace of transformation under the impact of science and technology, individuals trapped in it have no choice but to feel increasingly helpless. The intensities between free will and orders feed art with the possibilities to ferment. This time, artist Yin Xiuzhen transforms the white-cube gallery space, a place where habitual experience and perception are often met with challenges, into a construction site and invites people to join her to water and mix cement. Together they could create a “highway” block by block. As a contrast to all the hustle and bustle, a simple and mild action like this sends out a warm invitation to people to indulge themselves in hands-on experience, rationality, and transcendence.
Braking is the process of making a vehicle go slower or stop. As the system is on a track of continuous acceleration, every individual who is trapped in it is doomed to feel powerless. Under such circumstances, people would easily feel frustrated. However, the world is also brimming with uncertainties beyond the control of the system. As a result, the constantly accelerating system would experience unexpected braking every now and then, which opens up a door for new possibilities to sneak in. One Piece of Highway is a simple and mild action, inviting people to come to work on the “construction site”, and to test the potential of “braking” during the physical touching of construction materials – as the inertia we experience on the highway tends to make it elusive and somewhat distant.