Wu Street by Xu Bing

Wu Street

Xu Bing · 1993

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“Stop and look at this layered installation, "Wu Street," where found paintings and magazine clippings merge into a fragmented vision of an urban environment. It's a fascinating commentary on how images construct our reality.”

ABOUT THIS WORK

This installation, titled "Wu Street," invites you to peer into a fragmented urban landscape, a collage of found oil paintings, photographs, and magazine pages. Xu Bing created this work in 1993, assembling scenes that feel both familiar and disorienting. You see traditional landscape elements, perhaps from discarded amateur paintings, alongside photographic reproductions and printed text. The artist has deliberately obscured and recontextualized these elements, creating a sense of a city street that is constantly being built and dismantled, much like memory itself. The interplay between the painted and the printed, the original and the reproduction, challenges our perception of authenticity and the way images shape our understanding of the world around us. It’s a reflection on how mass media and personal experience merge in the modern urban environment.

DETAILS
Artist
Xu Bing
Date
1993
Medium
Four found oil paintings on canvas-covered board, photographic copies, magazine pages, and tracing paper, with collaged text and images
Location
Art Institute of Chicago
Dimensions
Dimensions vary with installation. Three paintings, each: 90 × 60 cm (35 7/16 × 23 5/8 in.); One painting: 60 × 90 cm (23 5/8 × 35 7/16 in.); Single magazine pages, three stacks of magazine pages, and two magazines,, each page: 28 × 20 cm (11 1/16 × 7 7/8 in.); Dimensions vary with installation. Three paintings: 90 × 60 cm (35 7/16 × 23 5/8 in.); Single magazine pages, three stacks of magazine pages, and two magazines: 28 × 20.1 cm (11 × 7 7/8 in.)
Collection
Contemporary Art
Credit line
Through prior purchase from the Mary and Leigh Block Fund
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What to Notice

Five details hide in plain sight. Pick one and we’ll show you exactly where to look.

Wu Street

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01

Green looping form

On the far left, a thick green line folds back and forth like a maze or a tree. Pale yellow marks run through it, and the bright color pops against the white wall.

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02

Twin circular swirls

Two round, ring-patterned shapes sit side by side in soft gray-blue, a bit like fingerprints or tree rings. Their edges look soft and faded.

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03

Black dotted grid

In the lower left corner of this frame, small black marks crowd together in a grid that breaks apart. It is a sharp, busy contrast to the soft swirls beside it.

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04

Three small panels

In the nearer frame on the right, three small paper pieces float on a linen-colored mat. Each holds a tiny dark image, so you have to step close to read them.

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05

Wide collaged frame

The larger frame on the far right repeats the three-panel rhythm with bigger, uneven sheets of paper. The wide spaces between them make you read the layout like a sequence.

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AUDIO DEEP DIVE

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THE ARTIST
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