The Silk Road 2, 2018
Zhu Rixin, born in 1986, Jiujiang, China. He lives and works in Beijing.
Zhu Rixin's work is an interplay of strata and layers. Each of his works is rooted in geography, and even more so in topography. These meticulously reproduced maps and expanses of land become background materials, modified little by little in the image of the human hand on landscapes.
The once utilitarian maps come to life, no longer representing inhabited territory but a living surface in its own right. Humans walk on them, areas are painted, colored and highlighted. Borders become the lines of a work. With ink and color, Zhu Rixin opposes the structural definition of geography and its markers.
Emotion and beauty replace the scales, legends and pictograms that once guided our eye. The scientific object has become an object of contemplation. By linking the territory to its artistic and emotional value, Zhu Rixin invites us to reconsider our power over ecosystems and social and environmental structures.
His work has been exhibited in Chinese and international museums, including the Repin Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, the He Xiangning Art Museum and the CAFA Art Museum.