Art and Architecture - Yin Xiuzhen

Portable City: Mebourne, 2009
Suitcase, used clothes, magnifying glass, map, sound, light
Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery

Portable City: Melbourne, 2009
Detail

Portable City: Jia yu Guan, 2009
Suitcase, used clothes, magnifying glass, map, sound, light
Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery

Portable City: Jia yu Guan, 2009
Detail

The Beijing-based artist Yin Xiuzhen's Portable City series fits into both themes of architecture and globalisation. Each piece resembling a major city, Xiuzhen incorporates used items (mainly clothes) to create these worlds within a suitcase, ready to be packed up and taken to a new place. There is a nomadic sensation within her practice, which engages with the differing environments and the memories of the artist's experience within each city. The 'suitcase architecture' is not functional, but it explores the personal impact that a major city can have on its inhabitants. I like this work because it brings together both the overly public and functional purpose of architecture and the unique experience that each individual has within the environment in which they live.