Nostalgia for the Future: Zhu Bing Solo Exhibition

Zhu Bing spent his childhood in the 70s in an army factory in the north of China. At that time, China was still a very ideologically organized society. It was also the last glorious period of huge army industries. These great and glorious factories were probably of greater appeal to the young Zhu Bing than the ideology behind them. Therefore Zhu Bing had a rather happy childhood. Although the northern air was often filled with gray dust, sun beams shine through his memories. As time goes by, the sun light grows even stronger. When he eventually moved to southern Guangzhou to take up a teaching position, the northern factories had already fallen into decay and seemed even more out of date when put in the sunlight of the south. Housing in Guangzhou is modern and bright but Zhu Bing, although having lived there for many years, still considered himself a northerner. This attitude reveals itself in his series Dream Garden. Scattered stones, wild grass, dilapidated buildings, slopes, crooked roads leading to nowhere, animals roaming about as ghosts, withered trees defying a cold northern wind; all covered in an air of pollution. As it seems, Zhu Bing’s feelings towards his hometown are just as complex as the emotions of millions of city dwellers drifting to town. They are lingering around but can not free them self from nostalgia. 

 

Text / Liu Jie