QIN Xiaoshi

Xiaoshi Qin (b. 1989, Guangzhou) lives and works in Guangzhou. In recent years, the artist has been hunting for objects, folklore, legends, and images in landscapes. She then presents these materialistic/imaterialistic, fictional/nonfictional findings with experimental materials and medium, sometimes hiding these art pieces back in the landscape, completing a cycle of exchange using objects as messages. The stories she collected are mostly about local legends, history, Southern China pirates, and their treasures hidden around the Pearl River Delta.

Her previous works include topics such as predicting the future through debate, sonic weapons, and doomsday preppers. Beginning in 2014, she invited award-winning high school debaters to debate on topics such as “Will there be Contemporary Art in 2020?” (2014) and “Can an A.I. Be an Artist?” (2016) at the Queens Museum and the Jewish Museum in New York. She collaborated with Hera Chan on sonic research in Havana supported by the Times Museum in 2019. They also showed at Savvy Contemporary in Berlin. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2015 and was awarded the Lotus Foundation Prize.

Her recent solo exhibitions include “Temple Boat” at the Ox Warehouse, Macau (2022), “Pillow Box” at Window of Shekmai, Shenzhen (2022), and “Into the Woods” at the Huangshan Lushan Forest Park, Guangzhou (2021). Selected group exhibitions include ”structural stowaway” at basis e.V., Frankfurt am Main (2023),“Empowerment” at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg(2022), “Rearview Landscape: A Trip About Ownership” at the UCCA Dune in Qinhuangdao (2021), “Landscape, Synecdoche” at the N3 Contemporary Art in Beijing (2021), ”Next Act” at Asia Society Hong Kong Center in Hong Kong (2020), “This Margin is Your Vantage Point” at IN SITU in Paris (2020), “Miss Ruthless” and “Cafe do Brasil” at Para Site, Hong Kong (2017, 2021), and “Dark Ecology” at Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (2019).