S I T E 2 8 0 1

C RO C K E R A RT M U S E U M

01

Gong Yuebin’s childhood was one of physical hardship and persecution. In his native China, his parents were forced to abandon their home in the city and enter a life of agricultural servitude because as educators they be-longed to the intellectual class. Like other noble and intellectual families, their status later caused them to be labeled political dissidents. In a 1959 political overthrow targeting highly educated people and government of-ficials known as the “Anti-Right,” they were sent to work the land around the poverty-stricken village of Gong Jia Yao (Gong’s Caves). It was there, in 1960, that Gong Yuebin was born.

Six years later, such political persecution turned into a widespread and violent class struggle under Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party, who sought to advance socialism and eradicate capitalism. Dur-ing this turbulent time, Gong, and millions of children like him, starved and lived in fear. “Hunger, worry, and humiliation accompanied me,” he remembers. “As human beings, my family and I, as well as others in similar situations, completely lost our dignity and security, surviving under unbearable pressure and stress.” This childhood experience continues to inform his artistic vision to this day.

Gong Yuebin | Site 2801

Site 2801 | 07

Even in the midst of such adversity, Gong found tranquil moments making drawings. After the Cultural Revolution ended and he was able to pursue a more normal life, he set out to fulfill his desire to become an artist. In 1978, he began his art training at Luoyang University, where his work progressed rapidly and he ultimately graduated with accolades. Newly credentialed, he secured his first steady job as an art teacher in a community college and taught there for seven years, all the while participating in provincial and national art shows and winning awards. In 1989, in order to further advance his knowledge and skill in painting, Gong enrolled in the graduate program at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, undertaking a course of study that emphasized figurative ink paint-ing. In the year of his graduation, he held a solo exhibition of his work in Guangzhou. The paintings sold internationally, bringing his talents to the attention of the Guangzhou Radio and Television Station, which hired him as an art editor. The position provided a broad base of training in stage design and marketing and also allowed him to pursue projects for public benefit such as city planning and urban design.

A medical crisis caused Gong to reconsider his priorities, and in 2004 he made a full return to fine art. He decided to immigrate to the United States with his family. After ten years away from his own, focused art-making, he determined that he would explore new artistic styles and a variety of themes. The art he makes today is very different from his earlier figurative ink paintings. It is conceptually based and sculptural, meant to express his beliefs, cultural heritage, and ideas about the status and future of human life.

Gong created his first monumental installation in 2010, which he en-titled Life’s Crossroad. Haunting and visionary, the piece was composed of dozens of burnt-out tree trunks, which he reclaimed from the Sierra after a forest fire. Using their charred and craggy remains to analogize the human condition, Gong then enhanced the trunks and branches with chains and phosphorescent red paint. Displayed under black light, the remains glowed like burning embers, confronting viewers as they appeared to burn. The result, Gong hoped, would make viewers ponder shared values related to life and death.

08 | Gong Yuebin

Site 2801 is Gong Yuebin’s second monumental project. In this massive installation, viewers are asked to become archaeologists of the future by con-fronting an incongruous and satirical juxtaposition of humanity’s past and present. Terracotta warriors from China’s First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang (259 BCE – 210 BCE), are displayed rank and file, having been “unearthed” in a site that not only includes historical warriors, but modern combat troops and nuclear missiles. To replicate the historic warriors, and also create new, present-day soldiers, Yuebin returned to his inspirational source. The clay he used is from an ancient site in Lishan Mountain, Xi An, China, where Qin Shi Huang’s famous Terracotta Army was excavated. Using the original warriors as models, he maintained their costumes but adjusted facial expres-sions and poses for this project, as well as added the contemporary soldiers, missiles, and newborns. In total, there are 200 historic warriors and ten contemporary soldiers in Gong’s army. Each one is fired at 1,800 degrees and finished just as they were in antiquity. The missiles and newborns, however, are made of fiberglass, a contemporary material for a contemporary theme.

Inherent in this bleak display is the artist’s consternation about the apparent lack of progress in thousands of years of human evolution and empire build-ing. Newborn infants that lie within the missiles offer small indications of hope, yet even hope remains sealed within a capsule of time and destruction. Gong therefore asks not that we contemplate our behavior for ourselves, but from the perspective of our children’s children. By looking at the past from a vantage point in the future, Yuebin hopes that all who see his work might be held more accountable in the present.

Scott A. Shields, Ph.D.Associate Director and Chief Curator, Crocker Art Museum

Site 2801 | 09

In my first art installation in Sacramento, Life’s Crossroad, I borrowed elements from the natural world and displayed them in an objective documentary style to illustrate relationships in human survival and the sustainability of natural resources.

In Site 2801, I present an artistic installation representing life’s transfor-mation through millennia of human history through the eyes of a future archaeologist. My perspectives are critical and satirical. This project aims to explore crucial questions regarding life, suffering, and death. The installation takes the viewer on a journey that crosses time and emotion and engages in moral deliberation.

Site 2801 consists of 200 replicas of the famous 2000-year-old terracotta warriors excavated from the tomb of China’s first emperor, who may then have controlled the greatest military in the world. These funerary effigies are divided into four formations, with several warriors among each group holding above their heads a dilapidated nuclear missile, representing our most advanced modern weapon. Ensconced in these deteriorating weapons of mass destruction are newborn babies, symbols of our world’s future. The viewers are today’s concerned individuals, who willingly participate in this visual drama.

Site 2801

Site 2801 | 11

As viewers travel the maze of smiling and powerful terracotta soldiers and newborn babies lying in corroded nuclear missile casings, they encounter the shadows and expressions of people next to them, allowing participants and the work of art to interact and form an experiential bond. Together, they engage in a somber reflection on humankind’s questionable past, present, and future by being asked to ponder questions such as: What difference is there between justice and cruelty, righteousness and evil, barbarism and civilization? What is the rationality of destroying life in the name of saving it? Can we still rationalize that past wars were of neces-sity and justice, rather than admit that all wars are promulgated through conspiracies of greed and hatred? As we find more efficient ways to maim and kill, should we still claim to be members of an advanced civilization? And, what is the value of a human life when it is reduced to a target in the cross-hairs of a gun, or to a mere blip on a computer screen?

The dead are history, and what is lost cannot be regained. In Site 2801 only the visitors are alive and in the present. Our thoughts and actions will determine the fate of our future. Our mission is to make the right choices. Otherwise, years of tragedies will continue until what was predicted by Einstein becomes reality: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” It is my goal to challenge viewers to think about war and consider their options, for I believe that there is still time to change.

Gong Yuebin

12 | Gong Yuebin

Specifications for Site 2801

Site 2801 includes 200 terracotta soldiers, ten contemporary soldiers, four nuclear weapons, and four infant babies in four sections. The 210 soldiers utilized clay from the ancient site in Lishan Mountain, Xi An, China, where the famous 2,000-year-old terracotta warriors were excavated from the first Chi-nese emperor Qin Shi Huang’s tomb. The terracotta soldiers were proportioned to match those of the ancient tombs; each is approximately four feet high. The clay was fired at 1,800 degrees with a silt finish replicating that of the ancient originals. The nuclear bombs and babies are made of fiberglass with a similar finishing procedure. The nuclear bombs measure 12 feet long. This installation can be tailored to fit the existing environment and can be arranged in squares, lines, or circles.

02

03

01: Site 2801. View of completed excavation.02: We are shining in dark night! Close view of assemblage. 03: Facing the unknown. View from behind of ancient warriors and a modern soldier.04: Top view of assemblage with newborn.

Site 2801 | 15

04

05

05: Ancient warriors hoisting degraded nuclear bomb (detail).06: Infant (detail).

Site 2801 | 17

06

07: Gong Yuebin in front of Life’s Crossroad.

18 | Gong Yuebin

07

Previous Works

08

09

10

08: A Gracious Woman, 1992. Ink painting on silk, 52 x 26 inches. Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art Collection.09: Farmer’s Lunch, 1985. Woodblock print, 24 x 24 inches. Private Collection.10: Share the Sunshine, 2008. Oil on canvas, 6 x 6 inches. Collection of the Artist.11: We Are One with All in This Planet, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches. Collection of the Artist.

Site 2801 | 21

11

For the Life’s Crossroad series, I borrowed relics from a forest fire and used their remains as sculptural elements. This project includes 38 pieces in five sections: Body, Spirit, Resource, Lifeline, and Freedom. The materials include burnt wood, steel plates, metal chains, acrylic paint, and fluorescent lighting.

Introduction (one piece): 3 feet diameter x 2 feet high; within 100 square feetBody (twelve pieces): 2 feet diameter x 8 feet – 12 feet high; within 1,000 square feetSpirit (eight pieces): 1 foot diameter x 3 feet – 8 feet high; within 500 square feet Resource (eight pieces) 1 foot diameter x 3 feet – 6 feet high; within 200 square feet Lifeline (five pieces): 1 foot diameter x 2 feet – 5 feet high; within 600 square feet Freedom (four pieces): 1 foot diameter x 3 feet – 9 feet high; within 600 square feet An additional element of this project includes the use of black-lighting or spot-lighting.

12: Life’s Crossroad series

Specifications for Life’s Crossroad

12

22 | Gong Yuebin

Black Hole consists of 100 suspended, white-gauze curtains, each measuring 16 feet high by 6 feet wide. They are hung in formation to allow a central clearing that measures 20 feet in diameter. In the middle of this opening is a 12-foot-wide pool of red liquid (powered by an electric water pump). In the center of the pool is a sleeping naked infant (toy). Around the perimeter of the pool are 12 giant red search beams. Spotlights tilted 45 degrees upwards intersect the center of the pool and reflect off of the sheer, white-gauze curtains.

This project utilizes 4,000 square feet of space and 16 foot ceilings, as well as power for the pump and lights. The installation can adapt, however, to the existing indoor or outdoor environment and can be configured in a square, line, or circle.

Specifications for Black Hole

13: Black Hole series

Site 2801 | 23

13

14

Specifications for Nations

Nations includes 190 pieces of driftwood collected from the coast of the Pacific North-west. Materials have been treated to be waterproof and rust/pesticide resistant. Each piece is worked with cut and shaped metal wire to create 190 “crabs.” Sizes range from two inches to two feet.

This project utilizes 2,000 square feet of space but can be configured according to the existing indoor or outdoor environment. It can be arranged as a square, line, or circle on the floor, the wall, or even on the ceiling. It is preferable for audiences to view this work from a variety of vantage points.

14: Nations series

24 | Gong Yuebin

Education:Masters coursework, Fine Art, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (1992) BFA, Fine Art, Luoyang University (1982)

Work Experience:Self-employed artist, owner, Gong Studio, Sacramento, CA (2009 – present) Owner, Jinsun Advertising Co., LTD, Guangzhou, China (1998 – 2004)Art Editor, Guangzhou Radio and Television GZTV (1992 – 1998)Art Instructor, Art Department, Yanshi City College (1982 – 1989)

Solo and Group Exhibitions:Site 2801, Crocker Art Museum, Historic Ballroom, Sacramento, CA (March 10 – April 29, 2012) Life’s Crossroad, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA (October 6 – November 15, 2011) Nations, Gong Studio, Sacramento, CA ( July 2011)Life’s Crossroad, Peace Arch Park, Blaine, WA (May 2011)Life’s Crossroad and Black Hole, California State University, Sacramento, CA (April 2011)Life’s Crossroad, Gong Studio, Sacramento, CA ( July 2010)Solo retrospective exhibition, Guangzhou, China (1992)National Art Exhibition, Hangzhou, China (1985)Ancient Capital Cities, a six-city art show tour across China (1984)Henan College Student and Young Artists Competition, China (1982)

Awards:Multiple Awards, National Advertising Design Exhibition, Nan Jing, China (1998)First Prize, Henan College Student and Young Artists Competition, China (1982)

Collections:Ink painting acquired by Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China (1992)Drawings acquired by Luoyang University, China (1982)

Gong Yuebin | profile

26 | Gong Yuebin

Professional Affiliations:Professor and Executive Officer, Seminar Committee, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou (1998 – 2004)Guangzhou Art Design Association, Elected Member (1994 – 2004)Henan Province Artist Association, Elected Member (1982 – 1994)

Bibliography:Dalkey, Victoria. “Second Saturday Picks: Installation, New Works Are Highlights,” Sacramento Bee, 9 July 2010.Doyle, Alicia. “Artist’s Work Features Blackened Tree Trunks,” Ventura County Star, 5 October 2011.Gong, Yuebin. “Charred Trees from Angora Fire Inspire Sacramento Artist.” Narr. Dale Schornack. News 10 Weeknight Edition. ABC. KXTV, Sacramento, 8 July 2010. Television.Gong, Yuebin. “Life’s Crossroad Art Show.” Interview with Courtney Dempsey. CW 31 Good Day Sacramento. CBS. KOVR, Sacramento, 8 July 2010. Television.Gong, Yuebin. Life’s Crossroad. Sacramento: Gong Studio, 2010. Print.Gong, Yuebin. To Be Memorized in the Future. Guangzhou, China: Guangzhou Radio and Television, 2000. Print.Grotewohl, Alex. “Art exhibit on campus features abstract, large-scale installations,” State Hornet, 27 July 2011.Kim, Gina. “Artist Finds Inspiration in Scenes of Desolation.” Sacramento Bee, 7 July 2010.Kwan Fong Gallery. “Life’s Crossroad Installations,” California Lutheran University News, 6 October 2011. Turner, Melanie. “Second Saturday: Merchants Love Marketing Exposure, But Would Like More Sales,” Sacramento Business Journal, 17 December 2010.

Gong Studiowww.gongyuebin.com

Site 2801 | 27

28 | Gong Yuebin

15: Gong Yuebin at work.

Site 2801 | 29