Parasol Bed by Leah Poller

Leah Poller Photos: Xiong Yuqing/GT

Two years after The First Zero Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition by Female Artists in 2013, curator Guo Hongmei is looking to once again present the diversified aspects of female artists with a new exhibition that focuses on contemporary female sculptors: Materials Speak. 

Opened on Saturday, the exhibition features works from 23 female artists at the Zero Art Center in Beijing until May 17. 

"Fewer artworks are taking the sex organs as their subject or indirectly expressing the suffering of women from violent or non-violent means. These subjects have been gradually replaced by a greater acceptance of female lifestyles and in-depth exploration into women's inner worlds. Many female artists have developed unique forms of expression in terms of material, visual features and emotional delivery," Guo explained at the exhibition's opening ceremony on Saturday.

Besides the four sections containing works by Chinese artists (90 percent of whom were born after 1980), another highlight at the exhibition can be found in the independent section: over 20 works from American sculptor Leah Poller's project The 101 Bed Collection. This is the first time that an overseas artist has been invited to the event.

Entering the exhibition, visitors find the first floor has been decorated with the different types of beds that Poller has designed, most of which are about 20 centimeters in length, width and height. All the works on display are those that she created at a Chinese studio in recent years, with some of them having been previously displayed in Hong Kong.

Born in Pennsylvania in the US, Poller first began studying classical sculpture at the prestigious École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Her 101 Bed Collection started as something of an accident. After falling from a ladder while moving a sculpture, she was forced to lay in bed for months. During this time she began to realize how beds are connected to people's lives. Most people spend almost one third of their entire lives in bed, many people are born while their mothers lie in bed and on some occasions people die in bed as well. Beds are places where people rest and dream, and are linked to the entire circle of life.

"You almost can't define a bed. It is generally a hard surface on which someone sleeps. But you can sleep on anything. It might have legs, it might not. It might have a headboard, lots of beds don't... The interesting thing is that the idea of a bed as we think of it now is very recent," Poller told the Global Times how inspiration for bed designs began to flood her mind. Since the definition can be so broad almost anything could become a new installation.

After she was released from the hospital, she designed 12 beds for an exhibition. Inspired by her designs people began calling her and commissioning new bed designs. Creating over 100 beds in total, she decided to name the project The 101 Bed Collection, inspired by a Max Ernst exhibition titled 101 Hats that she saw in France.

One of the main bed sets for the exhibition in Beijing is made from hundreds of different colored parasols. According to Poller, this was inspired by her first impressions of China. When she was six years old, her father attended a cocktail party and brought her a drink with a parasol that was made by a Chinese manufacturer. The idea that these small umbrellas could be behind a giant export business inspired her. "I like the idea of small things becoming big ones," Poller said.

Some of her other installations reflect cultural gaps. One of the sets, the-aptly-titled Bunk, was inspired from the Old English meaning of the word "bunk," which can mean nonsense. The work features a bunk bed with a lot of pigs sleeping in it, a play on the word "hogwash."

"I found out that people here have a different understanding of pigs (Pigs in China are a symbol of wealth). This was a lesson for me and brought me some new inspiration for the project."

Having displayed works in galleries and museums worldwide, the entire 101 Bed Collection is so large it has never been featured together under one roof.

"No one yet has seen all 101 beds in one place at one time. I am waiting for that exhibition," Poller told the Global Times.