The art of Song Dong has always been deeply personal.
Born in 1966, the artist is known for using both his own body and his native Beijing as a canvas to explore ideas of change and impermanence.
For example, he “froze” his own breath on the winter slabs of Tiananmen Square for the performance piece Breathing in 1996, and, like the old men who show off their calligraphy in local parks by writing on the ground in water, Song’s Writing Diary with Water (1995) evaporates soon after he records a fleeting moment on stone.
“Song Dong’s art always explores the experience and process of change in surrounding environments, the constant quest for discourse and stimulation, as well as the openness of possibility,” says Leng Lin, partner and president, Asia of Pace Gallery and, since 2005, his co-creator, along with artists Liu Jianhua, Hong Hao and Xiao Yu, in provocative collective Polit-Sheer-Form Office (PSFO).
