One of the most influential artists on the international stage, Xu Bing has made a profound impact on the history of Chinese contemporary art. His art pieces have been exhibited at many important galleries and museums across the world. Now, the 63-year old creative is holding one of his most thoughtful exhibitions yet in Beijing. Li Qiong reports.

This exhibition marks Xu Bing's most comprehensive retrospective in Beijing to date. It is the product of an artistic career that spans more than four decades.

A milestone piece is "Book from the Sky", which took Xu five years to complete in the 1980s. He created thousands of non-referential Song-style Chinese characters, hand-carved into individual pieces of movable type, which he typeset and bound in this unique multimedia creation. First presented in Beijing in 1988, the 4,000 characters that looked Chinese but were completely meaningless stirred confusion and doubt in his audience.

Reflection on language and the nature of writing has been at the core of Xu Bing's art since the beginning of his career during the mid-1980s.

Xu's ambition is never just to make a painting or a sculpture. It's always to create a system.

His series 'Background Story', again challenges visitors' basic assumptions, showing that everything is not always as it first seems. Traditional Chinese ink painting can be created with tools other than the classic ink and brush. Xu Bing says these novel ways of creating paintings should be promoted.

XU BING ARTIST "This painting we see here is not a real painting. The movement of painting doesn't even exist. It's not composed of paper and ink, but light and air. The materials are random natural debris".

This faux tiger skin rug is formed of thousands of cigarettes. But far from trying to promote a simple pro or con attitude towards tobacco, the artist's goal is to take a nuanced and wide-ranging approach towards the issue.

XU BING ARTIST "Actually it's about the relationship between human and tobacco. Why humans are so reliant on tobacco. It reflects our weakness in various areas. I can hardly say this is an art piece. It's also related to history and world economy."

The exhibition "Xu Bing: Thought and Method" runs through October 18 at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. LQ, CGTN.