Xu Qu, Tennis Court, 2014, Installation (painted iron panel, wire fence, High-pressure fan,PVC-U pipe), 592×880×350cm, Taikang Space, Beijing. Courtesy of Taikang Space. LAST MONTH, BEIJING-BASED artist Xu Qu (b. 1978) constructed his first large-scale outdoor installation: a tennis court on the terrace of Taikang Space in
Beijing’s Caochangdi. Tennis Court, exactly 1/6 the size of a standard tennis court, is also an exercise in relational aesthetics: viewers become players as they step onto the court and it explodes into chaos. A hidden mechanical system pushes the tennis balls into an up-and-down motion, making us wonder who here is actually controlling the game. “Xu Qu: Tennis Court” is at Taikang Space, Beijing, September 11- Ongoing.Xu Qu, Tennis Court, 2014, installation view, Taikang Space, Beijing. Courtesy of Taikang Space.Xu Qu, Tennis Court, 2014, detail, Taikang Space, Beijing. Courtesy of Taikang Space.