Bing Bing 兵冰
Bing Bing 兵冰 (b. Guiyang 1978) is a photographer, philosopher and aspiring politician who regularly contributes artworks, essays, and exhibition mission statements to the island6 Arts Center, where he is a member of Liu Dao 六岛. Bing Bing is one of the essential contributors to Liu Dao and island6 based on the strongly philosophical and courageously sensitive nature of his art.

While studying Art and Design at Guangzhou University, Bing Bing wrote several papers on the emergence of the equal-field system in the Tang Dynasty and immersed himself in literature on Confucian meritocracy before graduating in 2001. He then spent three years working in the Chinese garment industry, and as a member himself, convinced over 500,000 citizens to join the All China Federation of Trade Union, and is acknowledged for his help in the ACFTU’s Congress decision in 2003 to let migrant workers into membership. Bing Bing produced many photo essays during his time working in garment factories among the Chinese workforce.

In 2004, Bing Bing began work as an assistant for several different fashion photographers, and over the next three years learned to work with different photography setups. He has developed special aesthetics towards clothing as well as an obsession with the garment development and psychological models that determine a particular choice. His primary interest became lingerie. In his series he ponders the purpose and power of different clothing styles in order to express liberalization of genders, notions of private space and sexuality. Through 2009, Bing Bing has built up an extensive collection of used undergarments, from thermal underwear to thongs from every continent. He has spontaneously bought swimwear from people at public swimming pools and has won at auctions, with help from sponsors, famous racing briefs, posing briefs, and bikinis owned by world famous actors, body builders and models such as Alain Delon and John Grimek.

The philosophy most recently offered to island6 from Bing Bing is that each person has a limit of how many clothes one is ready to take off before starting to feel uncomfortable-Bing Bing tries to capture that limit. For the last two years he has been working on a series of work called “Laundry”, and another called “Accessories”, where accessories become the main pieces of clothing. His aim is neither to beautify a human body nor have it ridiculed.