Beijing exhibit highlights empathy, connection

Another showpiece that strikes a chord with the audience is The Name of Gold, a two-channel video installation that sculptor Geng Xue created to empathize with the entire humanity.

Originally featured at the 2019 Venice Biennale, the main part of the work is a 9-minute black-and-white animation in which crude clay figures, beckoned by a colossus that radiates gold, silently toil away.

The other part of Geng's work, four gold-rimmed sculptural ponds containing screens showing gold figures glitter in midair, is displayed on the ground.

"The clay figures in the filmlet refer to our humans while the colossus, indefinite in form and meaning, represents a goal that all of us crave to reach. To pursue the goal, everyone has to suffer in their own way," said Geng, who dedicated the work to her two babies.

"I was four months pregnant when I started this project, and I wanted to tell my kids what the world is like essentially," she added.