Geng Xue

The Name of Gold, 2019  
Clay stop-motion film, single-channel, colour, sound, 9 min 27 sec, edition of 6 

In the dual-screen video, The Name of Gold, characters created with clay forge ahead in the black- and-white world. Presented at the beginning of the video, black and white embodies a world that is both cruel and humorous, real and illusory, secular and sacred. Characters in the storyline are made of clay, whose texture echoes the rough persona, going through traumas, unavoidable difficulties and tribulations, set against the context of numerous problems people have to face. The clay figures are collectively creating a monolith, so huge as to be beyond vision, which is golden inside, emitting the light, color and sound of calling and temptation. People work for it and even offer part of themselves or others as sacrifice, yet the giant in turn continuously devours the assiduous humans. An electronic clock is running backward at full speed, flickering between “mud and meat”. The film still leaves some space for interpretation, for instance, is the giant a Babel Tower? As time flows back at its will, is it a symbol of the past like a dreamy illusion? Is the film a reflection on human collective behavior, or a fable of human life, sickness and death?

Artist Biography

Geng Xue (b.1983, Jilin, China) attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, graduating in 2007. In 2013 she studied video production at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design in Germany, and in 2014 she was awarded a Master of Fine Art from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where renowned artist Xu Bing was her mentor. 

Geng Xue was awarded ‘Blanc de Chine’ Interna6onal Ceramic Art Award in 2017. Her works have been widely exhibited internationally, including the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018) and the 58th Venice Biennale (2019). Geng Xue’s works are collected by a range of public institutions including Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, Holland; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Seto City Art Museum, Japan; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK; White Rabbit Collec6on, Australia; and Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin- Madison, US. 

Represented by Vermilion Art (Gadigal Country/Sydney), Booth A1. 

Geng Xue, The Name of Gold (film still), 2019, clay stop-motion film, single-channel, colour, sound, 9 minutes and 27 seconds, edition of 6.