Guan Xiao: Composite Bodies

The exhibition poster is based on a news photograph of a propeller completely covered in mussels. On coastal rock surfaces and the undersides of boats, tens of thousands of mussels can often be seen clinging densely together, forming complex, heavy surfaces. Biologists refer to this composite state, formed by large numbers of individual organisms acting together, as a “collective body.” The concept overlaps in an unexpected way with Guan Xiao’s longstanding choice of tree roots as a sculptural material. For Guan Xiao, making art has never been simply a matter of manipulating a particular material, but rather a way of thinking about the relationships among bodies, environments, and objects. The body has always been an important point of departure in her sculpture, and she often looks at and handles objects anthropomorphically. Tree roots, as well as objects originally belonging to the realms of industry or everyday life, can enter the category of the body…