Shao Yinong and Muchen

Banknotes are memories. In “Spring and Autumn,” Shao Yinong and Muchen present part of their embroidered replicas of obsolete banknotes on large-scale transparent black silk that suggest the fleeting nature of power and its effect on collective memories. Varying only in size and color, favoring the golden palette of traditional Suzhou silk weaving (it took nearly ten years to complete the whole series, not entirely on show here), these diaphanous veils are suspended in rows in the gallery, inviting keen observers to study their fine details and ponder the idealized territorial claims and national

picks March 25, 2014

Xu Bing

Xu Bing left China in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and moved to the United States, where he infused themes of cultural transference into his linguistically sensitive work. Weeks before his relocation, however, he initiated a large-scale stone rubbing of part of a Great Wall bell tower, Ghost Pounding the Wall, 1990–91, as a personal memento and a critique of the monolithic isolationism of the Chinese state. For his current retrospective, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum is presenting this immersive 104-foot-long installation—part appropriation, part relief print—in its lobby, and