28 Chinese

Boat
2012
by Zhu Jinshi (Chinese, b. 1954)
Xuan paper, bamboo, and cotton thread

Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami.
© Zhu Jinshi, © ARS, New York.

This installation is made from eight thousand sheets of Chinese calligraphy paper, which overlap bamboo rods suspended from the ceiling with cotton thread. As you walk through the structure and see row upon row of carefully stacked paper, you might experience what the artist calls a "symbolic journey" that seems to block out the world. Zhu Jinshi says that this work is his attempt to "infinitely extend every moment," using the movement of a boat—and its ability to go in any direction in the water—as an analogy for the extension of time and experience.

"Whereas time only moves forward, Boat can be sailed in any direction. Boat's cultural resonance is constructed of time itself, continuously ebbing and flowing through our imagination." —Zhu Jinshi