Xiyadie, Rendezvous at the Pavilion, 2025. Papercut with water based dye and Chinese pigments on Xuan paper, wooden frame. 157 x 157 x 5 cm. Photo: Viktor Sjödin
xiyadie »Rendezvous at the Pavilion«
Focus, March 28, 2026
"Xiyadie, a father, farmer, gay man, migrant worker, and artist, creates intimately crafted paper cuts that document the evolution of queer life in China since the 1980s. Though Xiyadie’s paper cuts since the first decade of the twenty-first century feature queer love scenes situated in cruising sites that he discovered upon arriving in Beijing in 2005, his earlier works are set mostly within interior spaces." —Rosario Güiraldes
Xiyadie’s Rendezvous at the Pavilion (2025) portrays a pair of lovers uniting beneath the moonlight in the pavilion, looking tenderly into each other’s eyes as their fingers intertwine. “When you love someone, it seems that no matter how many pairs of hands you have, you cannot get enough of one another,” remarks the artist.
The work derives its title from the eponimous Shaanxi Qinqiang opera (《臺亭相䨝》), set during the Song Dynasty, telling the story of two lovers who were separated due to persecution by those in authority, before reuniting in the flower pavilion after a long separation. In Xiyadie’s restaging of the opera, the pavilion is reimagined as a secret meeting place for gay lovers, where they can freely express their unspoken affections.
Xiyadie (b. 1963, Weinan, Shaanxi Province, China) is a self-taught traditional Chinese papercut artist whose works narrate his journey of transformation and homoerotic fantasies. His works are currently on view at Tate Modern’s collection exhibition Artist and Society. Solo exhibitions include venues as The Drawing Center (New York, 2023), Flazh! Alley Art Studio (Los Angeles, 2012), and Beijing LGBT Center (2010), among others. The artist was featured in the Main Exhibition of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Foreigners Everywhere. Xiyadie has also participated in the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts in 2019, and the 12th Gwangju Biennale in 2018.
Xiyadie has taken part in group exhibitions at Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2024), Para Site (Hong Kong, 2024, 2017), Macalline Center of Art (Beijing, 2024), ICA NYU Shanghai (2023), Kunsthal Gent (2023), Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong, 2022), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, 2022), Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw, 2020), Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (2019), Taipei MOCA (2019), and Östasiatiska museet (Stockholm, 2012), among others.
His work is present in the collections of KADIST, France/USA, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA, Östasiatiska museet, Sweden, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil, Spencer Museum of Art in the University of Kansas, USA, Sunpride Foundation, Hong Kong, Tate Modern, UK, and Cheng-Lan Foundation, Hong Kong.
Xiyadie, Rendezvous at the Pavilion, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Blindspot Gallery