Beijing-based artist Fu Xiaotong is known for her 'pinprick' works, composed of thousands of tiny holes hand-pricked with a needle in traditional Xuan paper. Forming minutely topographical images, Fu explores the temporal and material properties of process-based drawing.
Read MoreBorn in Shanxi, Fu Xiaotong studied a BA (Fine Arts) at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 2000. She completed her MA (Fine Arts) in the Department of Experimental Art at Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (2013).
Fu's practice encompasses drawing, sculpture, and installation.
Fu's sculptures make use of materials and objects to form unexpected new representations and assemblages. Her large-scale sculpture Void (2015) renders the body of an elephant from iron wire, while Mirrored Spider (2017) stands upon spindly wire legs, with a round mirror in the place of its 'face'.
In 2010 while studying at CAFA in Beijing, Fu began to use Xuan paper or Xuanzhi, a handmade rice paper used for painting and writing, first manufactured in China in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Interested in exploring the Xuan paper's materiality as well as its historic significance, Fu chose to highlight its characteristics not by painting or drawing on it, but by using a needle to repeatedly perforate the paper.
Fu's labour-intensive, repetitive perforation technique culminates in abstracted images composed of thousands of tightly clustered pinpricks, raising and depressing the paper's surface. Forming subtle textures and shadows, the pinpricks and needle marks reflect the artist's sensitivity to the material. Fu has stated: 'In the process of researching material language, I learned to pay attention to the performance and meaning of the material itself... Instead of drawing or writing on paper, I use needles to pierce holes. In this way, I can avoid getting stuck in the original cultural attributes of rice paper and explore the possibility of a new material language'.
Fu's pinprick drawings are typically named after the number of pinpricks used to form them—305,440 Pinpricks (2015) recalls the image of a brain scan, while 518,600 Pinpricks - Sacred Mountain (2015) depicts a mountainous landscape, with its topography defined by the highlights and shadows of the pricks in the paper.
Often displayed unframed, Fu's drawings offer the viewer a sense of intimacy or immediacy with the artist's process, enabling a close inspection of her technique.
Fu Xiaotong has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions throughout China and the United States.
Select solo exhibitions include Proliferation, Chambers Fine Art, New York (2018); Limitless, Chambers Fine Art, Beijing (2017); Land of Serenity, Chambers Fine Art, New York (2016) and Beijing (2015).
Select group exhibitions include The Illustrated Word: Artwork Inspired by Calligraphy, Chambers Fine Art, New York (2020); Needlepoint, Chambers Fine Art, New York (2019); Against the Stream, Chambers Fine Art, Beijing (2019); Material Traditions, Chambers Fine Art and Pagoda Red, Chicago (2019); EXPO Chicago, Chicago (2018); Past and Present, Chambers Fine Art, New York (2018); Then and Now, Pagoda Red, Chicago (2018); Organic Chaos, AroundSpace, Shanghai (2017).
Fu's works are held in public collections including the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, New York; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Misong Kim | Ocula | 2022
