alecshao:

Xu Bing - Where Does the Dust Itself Collect (2004)

Created with dust collected from the streets of lower Manhattan in the aftermath of 9-11, ”to attempt to understand the gravity and implications of that event. In the work, Xu Bing references the fine whitish-grey film that covered downtown New York in the weeks following 9-11, and recreates a field of dust across the gallery floor that is punctuated by the outline of a Zen Buddhist poem, revealed as if the letters have been removed from under the layer: 

True Wisdom is not like the tree; 
The mirror bright is nowhere shining;
As there is nothing from the first,
Where does the dust itself collect?”