Yin Xiuzhen

Although Yin Xiuzhen trained in the painting department at Capital Normal University in Beijing, she began making the installations for which she is best known in 1989. One of her best-known works of the mid-1990's, Washing the River (1995), consisted of frozen blocks of water taken from a polluted river that the artist encouraged passers-by to clean by scrubbing their surfaces. In this and her subsequent works, it is clear that Yin is critically engaged with the consequences of the modernization of the world's urban centers. Part of that concern is reflected in the ongoing series Portable Cities (2001-present), in which she constructs major aspects of a city she has visited—for example, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco—with items of clothing used by the city's inhabitants. The sculptures take the form of open suitcases, with the skyline of the identified city fleshed out in the clothing 'within' the suitcase. The personal nature of the materials humanizes the buildings, lending a quaintness to Yin's private version of a given city; but the materials remain anonymous and the experience of the city itself fleeting, both of which reference familiar aspects of urban life everywhere.

In Portable Cities: Vancouver (2003), Yin includes her standard construction materials: a suitcase with buildings built from clothing, a city map, a light, and an audio recording of music specific to Vancouver. The viewer has the sense Yin intends to represent the essence of Vancouver in a format that emphasizes the transient nature of city life—or, more importantly, the life of an international artist traveling amongst exhibitions taking place all over the globe. The suitcase is entirely portable, reflecting the life the artist herself has chosen. Marvelously ephemeral, but powerful in the packing-in of references, these miniature cities are both models of and tributes to the cities that are their inspirations. Yin challenges us to confront our own transitory experiences in contemporary urban life.

-Jonathan Goodman