In November 2006 Cang Xin stayed in London for one month as an artist in residence with The Red Mansion Foundation, during which time he produced a new series of work ‘Identity Exchange: London Series’, a continuation of the ongoing ‘Identity Exchange’ series.

Cang Xin is one of the first performance artists to come out of China after 1989, from the East Village in Beijing along with Zhang Huan and Ma Liuming. In his ongoing ‘Identity Exchange’ series, he asks workers from different professions if he may wear their clothes while they stand next to him in their underwear. The works at first glance seem frivolous “…but it is through clothes, that Cang Xin seems to have entered into the

 

bodies of other through a symbolic act, a modern approach to the traditional concept of souls travelling between bodies”, reflects Zhu Qi from the book Cang Xin.