Identity Exchange Series, 2002—2006 - Cang Xin
About the Work
About Identity Exchange Series
In his ongoing Identity Exchange series, Cang Xin asks people of different identities and social status if he may wear their clothes while they stand next to him in their underwear. At first glance, these works seem frivolous but it ...Read More
In his ongoing Identity Exchange series, Cang Xin asks people of different identities and social status if he may wear their clothes while they stand next to him in their underwear. At first glance, these works seem frivolous but it is through this exchange of clothes, this symbolic act, that Cang Xin seems to have entered into the bodies of others. In this complete series of 20 images, the artist has exchanged identities with charters from around Beijing and greater China: a police officer, a garbage man, theater performers, brides to be, and many more.
This performance also has greater implications; using this approach, the artist is able to draw attention to the modern fate of the individual, namely that our soul and body is uniformed and defined by our profession. Read Less
This performance also has greater implications; using this approach, the artist is able to draw attention to the modern fate of the individual, namely that our soul and body is uniformed and defined by our profession. Read Less
About the Artist
About Cang Xin
Although he received no formal training, Cang Xin became interested in art (as well as rock and roll) while he was at music school. For ...Read More
Although he received no formal training, Cang Xin became interested in art (as well as rock and roll) while he was at music school. For him art is more than technique: it is a way of life that sits easily with his self-conception as a modern-day shaman, heir to the nature-magic tradition of his native Mongolia. Cang holds the profound belief that all things have spirit—both animate and inanimate objects and he approaches his work as a means to promote harmonious communication with nature. As one of China's most celebrated performance artists, he first seized the public imagination with Communication (1996-2006), a ritual-performance series in which he licked, or tasted, everything from cockroaches and cobblestones to banknotes and a portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre. His works have included bathing with lizards, adorning the clothing of strangers, and prostrating himself on icy glaciers: each act representing a ritual of becoming the other.Read Less
Description
Color photographs made with archival pigments on fine art rag paperAuthentication
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