Shen Xin

ས་གཞི་སྔོན་པོ་འགྱུར། (The Earth Turned Green) is a solo exhibition by Shen Xin featuring a newly commissioned installation that centers restorative practices drawn from the Tibetan language through performance, land and family histories. Shen’s work as a moving image artist often explores potential relations outside of nationalistic belonging. Their recent research focuses on multitudes of the self and the other, as well as the interrelationship between culture and ecology.

Positioned in the center of the gallery, ས་གཞི་སྔོན་པོ་འགྱུར། (The Earth Turned Green) is a three-channel video and sound installation consisting of a film with subtitles in Tibetan and English. A projected image is visible on both sides of a floor-to-ceiling screen, dividing the room into two viewing spaces, with text projected on the ground of each side. Using stage lighting in a theater, the film depicts a day’s passing in winter, spring, summer and fall. The audio track and corresponding subtitles are reflections on the recorded imagery by Shen Xin together with their Tibetan language teacher, སྐྱིད་དར་འཛོམས། (Ji Ta Zong), who verbalize the movement of light and color through conversations in the process of teaching and learning Tibetan. To continue reading, please click here.

This exhibition is made possible in part through the generous support of the Shen Xin Exhibition Circle and production support from MadeIn Gallery. Shen Xin wishes to thank Zhang Hanlu and Times Museum Guangdong, The Sister Dennis Frandrup Artists in Residence Program Minnesota and MadeIn Gallery.

This exhibition is organized by Alison Coplan, Senior Curator.

Shen Xin (b. 1990, Chengdu) graduated from Slade School of Fine Art, London, with an MFA in Fine Art Media in 2014. Shen Xin creates moving image installations and performances that empower alternative histories, relations and potentials between individuals and nation-states. They seek to create affirmative spaces of belonging that embrace polyphonic narratives and identities. Shen Xin’s most recent work, Brine Lake (A New Body), was included in Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, Gwangju Biennale (2021), and in their first US museum solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2021). Recent solo exhibitions, performances and screenings include Double Feature at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2019), Synthetic Types at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2019), Warm Spell at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2018), half-sung, half-spoken at the Serpentine Galleries, London (2017), and At Home at Surplus Space, Wuhan (2016). Their group exhibitions include Language is a River at MUMA, Melbourne (2021), An Impulse to Turn at the Inside Out Museum, Beijing (2020), Sigg Prize at M+ Museum, Hong Kong (2019), and Songs for Sabotage, New Museum Triennial at the New Museum, New York (2018). Shen Xin has held education posts at numerous institutions including University of Minnesota, MCAD Minneapolis, Slade School of Fine Art, Goldsmith’s University London, University of Connecticut, and Newcastle University. They received the BALTIC Artists’ Award (2017) and held the Rijksakademie residency in Amsterdam (2018-19).