Blindspot Gallery is delighted to present “Xiyadie: Butterfly Dream”, Xiyadie’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery. Presenting over 30 works including unseen works from the early 1980s to the present, it is the largest exhibition of Xiyadie ever presented.
Born in 1963 in Weinan, Shaanxi province, Xiyadie is a self-taught traditional Chinese papercut artist who uses a medium with origins dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE) to narrate his journey of coming out from rural China as a homosexual person. His autobiographical papercuts chronicle his transformation through an environment that does not lend political agency to queer identifying people, while also reflecting the struggle of a marginalized individual as a migrant worker in the big city. The exhibition titled “Butterfly Dream” alludes to the artist’s pseudonym Xiyadie, meaning the Siberian Butterfly, emblematic of resilience and its flamboyant beauty. It signifies the artist’s determined pursuit of freedom and endurance in the harshest conditions.
