MASS MoCA, review by Kara L'Heureux

The Flight of Phoenixes

By Kara L’Heureux

Boxes tower high concealing the large hall, and what lies behind is a mystery. Slowly you enter the pathway maze of boxes and as you approach the end around the corner you can’t help but feel excitement and the suspense of what lies behind. As you turn the corner you look up and see them in all their glory. The barren factory hall is now the sky, and in the sky flies two mammoth creatures. Two phoenixes created by Xu Bing are 27 and 28 yards long. Amid flight one Phoenix follows the other; they are colossal, graceful and beautiful.

These birds are made entirely of construction site materials: hard helmets, shovels, rods, beams, wheels, and machine parts now are covered in small light blue lights. Walking from one end of the bird to the other, under and in between you see the details of every object that makes up these birds. The Phoenixes are unique but similar in most construction. No object is out of place and every attachment to the birds truly does make them look like actual creatures. Even though the birds are mechanical looking they still maintain realness in their texture and form as they fly.

This exhibit allows you to get up close to the birds and stand just beneath them. Staring up from underneath you can see a star light night sky made up of all the tiny lights places all over the bird’s wings, feathers, and body. While exploring you will also see a long counter of pictures. The pictures show the proses of creating these
 birds. Xu Bing is in many of these photos and you can see the steps he took from the very beginning of the idea to the end finished project. Captions below the pictures guide the images like a time line tell thing the story of why Xu Bing created these birds.

Like something out of a dream world these Phoenixes inspire wonder and questions about how the birds are even hung from the ceiling. You can’t help but spend a while just staring up at the Phoenixes in the sky.. Xu Bings sculptures transform the once barren hall into the sky.  You will feel small bellow but you will also feel as if you are flying along with the birds.