Birds without feathers: Sculptural birds from construction junk by Xu Bing.

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting an impressive exhibition by Chinese artist Xu Bing. One work, composed of two pieces that are collectively known as Phoenix, appear like giant birds that weigh over 12 tons.

Made from found construction waste, the work comments on the throwaway culture that has recently developed in China, but there are, of course, more layers than that. In a nation that has thousands of years of unbroken history, there have been many versions of society, usually embodied in the image of the current ruler. But in this great flow of humanity, individual rulers and their deeds are like flotsam on its surface. Today it might be the massive and unprecedented construction boom that rules the nation, but when it burns, as it surely will, another bird will rise in the same form, made from different objects.

Gratitude to Junk Culture.