Born in 1967 in Inner Mongolia, Cang Xin is a largely self-taught artist–for him, art is more than technique: it is an extension of his self-image as a modern shaman, heir to the nature-magic tradition of his native Mongolia. Cang expresses an intuitive understanding of the inner processes of Nature and the different visual emanations of Nature’s energetic forms. Cang Xin first seized the public imagination with Communication (1996-2006), a ritual-performance series in which he licked or tasted everything from cockroaches and cobblestones to banknotes and a portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre.

The photographs in this series feature the artist licking objects in the present lot. “At first I licked everyday things around the house, such as knives and spoons. Then three years later I began to lick places that had specific cultural meaning such as the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs… My use of the tongue also has other meanings: it has a sexual dimension to it and it is also the basis of speech… It begins as an impulse that is instinctual, but it’s gradually closed off by society as one grows up. My work tries to rediscover that kind of pure experience.

Strong accumulation of eastern mysticism subconsciously, disorder logical imagination and concentrate on the arbitrariness. His “Communication” series is developed from his previous performance “Experience of the Tongue”. He tried to experience the original taste of various inedible objects by putting the sense of taste to the extreme. The series of photographs documents his performance.