Set up to complement the Masterpieces of Chinese Painting exhibition at the V&A, artist Xu Bing was commissioned to transform the John Madejski Garden with an installation inspired by a classic Chinese fable, Peach Blossom Spring, written in 421AD. In this story a fisherman comes upon a place hidden behind a mountain where the inhabitants live in complete harmony with nature, unaware of the outside world.
As with much in life though, this idyll is not as it first seems, with the cables, power points and mist machines quite visible, showing the artifice of the installation but adding, rather than detracting from the fascination.
The more you look, the more you see.
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