For this week’s research post, I have chosen to talk about the artist Xu Bing. Xu Bing is a pioneering Chinese contemporary artist who grew up in Beijing. Bing takes his fascination with visual and written languages to create his mix-media installations that deal with not only language but upending expectations and perception as well. Through his installations, the artist takes the audience on a journey that considers how cultural backgrounds, including those that have been shaped by language, are the foundations of how we view the world. Bing explains this link as the “cognitive structures of the mind”. The first image that I included below is of his installation titled “Book from the Sky” which was displayed at the Blanton Museum in Austin from June 2016 to January 2017. This piece has been exhibited globally, receiving praise for its provocative power and for its ability to engage the audience beyond its original context.