‘Chinese Bible’ (2009) is a performance installation comprising 3,000 diaries and notebooks collected by Beijing-based artist Yang Zhichao (b. 1963). The diaries were bought from second-hand markets over a three-year period, but their content spans the first five decades of Communist China (1949-1999).
The diaries are displayed as a massive unit, like a patchwork memory quilt. Together they form a more genuine account of the period than a conventional history; one that is all the more compelling because of its randomness. Through his conscious act of recovery, washing and staging Yang Zhichao gives the diaries a new life, compelling us to consider their significance in the present.
Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF)
Until 1 August, 2015
Sydney
Chinese Bible (detail), 2009, 3000 found diaries
Photograph: Jenni Carter
Courtesy the artist and Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF), Sydney
