Flying
- Artist: Xiyadie
- Date: 2000
- Medium: Dye and pigment on paper
- Dimensions: support: 240 × 333 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Flying” by Xiyadie. Created in 2000, the work is a small dye‑and‑pigment on paper panel, just over 24 cm wide. It sits among a series of papercut pieces that twist an age‑old Chinese folk art into a contemporary voice. Xiyadie uses white “xuanzhi” paper—traditionally reserved for calligraphy and ink‑wash—then hand‑paints the cuts with bright food colours normally used to mark bao fillings.
In “Flying” the artist turns a personal moment into visual myth: the late son, who struggled with cerebral palsy, is imagined leaping from his wheelchair, his arms outstretched toward a smiling, anthropomorphic crescent moon. The image blends tenderness and fantasy, and hints at the quiet resilience that lies behind the artist’s broader, often subversive, papercutting practice.
See it in person
Flying is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
