December 1997: An exhibition of sixteen pieces of sculpture by Chinese artist Bing Hu that incorporate material found by the artist on the streets of Brooklyn will be presented at the Brooklyn Museum of Art from February 14, 1998, through May 10, 1998. Scattered Petals, Fallen Leaves, Shards of Glass: The Work of Bing Hu, Working in Brooklyn is the latest in a series of exhibitions of work by emerging artists who either live or work in Brooklyn.
Using materials mostly gathered near her central-Williamsburg studio, including man-made debris as well as found fragments from nature, Bing Hu has fashioned sculpture in the form of furniture. Included in the exhibition are a series of tables constructed from flower petals and leaves embedded in glass sheets and metal; curtains made of windshields, cheese cloth, and lace, suspended from metal hangers; and chandeliers created from glass bottles and light.
“Visual art is one kind of language to me, my way of freezing a fleeting moment from ordinary life. Where I live and who I am has a great effect on my art. Sometimes I feel I do not let the place where I have lived leave a stamp on my heart, but rather that I stamp my fingerprint on the place that I live,” comments Bing Hu about her work.
Bing Hu has studied art at the Shanghai Teachers’ College, the Art Students League, and at the State University of New York at Purchase, where she was awarded an MFA in 1995. Her work has appeared in several solo and group exhibitions including at P.S. 1, the American Museum of Natural History, the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and Exit Art. In June 1998 her work will appear in Chinese Women, an exhibition at Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany and in Glass Houses, a four-person show at the Neuberger Museum of Art at the State University of New York at Purchase.
Scattered Petals, Fallen Leaves, Shards of Glass was organized by Charlotta Kotik, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Part of the Museum’s ongoing Working in Brooklyn series, the exhibition is made possible in part by the Greenwall Foundation and the FUNd at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, created by a gift from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 1997, 171-172.
