Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Feng Boyi, Song Dong, Leng Lin, Barbara London, Sarina Tang, Philippe Vergne, et al.
Square feet of empty toothpaste tubes and bottles of cleaning solution, pencils, balls of wool or shoes—these objects, arranged in neat rows, could be seen at Waste Not, a spectacular installation by Song Dong (born 1966) comprising more than 10,000 individual items, which traveled around the world, inspiring countless exhibition visitors. During the Cultural Revolution, the artist’s mother fell into poverty and compulsively collected everyday objects. The installation arranges everything she accumulated, cataloguing and documenting her life. Song Dong has also arranged old doors and windows from demolished buildings to create new living spaces, and in Doing Nothing Garden at Documenta 12, he transformed a mountain of garbage into an attractive recreation area, while in Eating the City he created modern cityscapes out of candy. This is the first volume to survey all of the projects by the Chinese conceptual artist, in which he deals with issues such as consumption, sustainability, memory and spirituality.
Published in conjunction with the Documenta 13 exhibition in Kassel, Germany, the Documenta notebook series 100 Notes,100 Thoughts ranges from archival ephemera to conversations and commissioned essays. These notebooks express director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s curatorial vision for Documenta 13.
Published by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Text by Betti-Sue Hertz, David Elliott, Li Xianting, Ou Ning, Wu Hung.
The videos and photographs of Song Dong (born 1966) reveal the social implications of China's booming modernity, and the artist's own attempts to reconcile that boom with its spiritual traditions and its effects on members of his family. Dad and Mom, Don't Worry About Us, We Are All Well is based around a much heralded large-scale installation titled “Waste Not” (2005), comprised of over 10,000 items ranging from pots and basins to blankets, bottle caps, toothpaste tubes and stuffed animals collected by the artist's mother over the course of more than five decades as a way of coping with the death of her husband. A core theme of “Waste Not” is the idea that people, everyday objects and personal stories provide tangible evidence of the impact of politics and history on family life. This volume surveys several works on this theme of material and bodily evidence.
Song Dong: Doing Nothing
Song Dong: Dad and Mom, Don't Worry About Us, We Are All Well