About the Artist: Shu Yong

Chinese Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale
May 24, 2013 11:38PM

Shu Yong works in many mediums—including painting, photography, sculpture, and performance—but always returns to his near-obsession with bubbles. “In my viewpoint, ‘bubble’ is not just a specific symbol, but also a concept,” Shu says. “I use various methods to deduce bubble, making it a totem in both conception and form.” His depictions range from literal, in the form of soapsuds, to provocative and symbolic, as in one famously controversial series of sculptures, “Bubble Woman, of ballooning women’s breasts. Shu, who has famously called China his laboratory, thinks of his works as ways to address cultural mythology, politics, and contemporary anxiety.

Chinese Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale