The artist’s works are characterized by references that range widely in space and time, configured together to form an amalgamated aesthetic. The installation Sunset, 2012, consists of a light box, animated by the sky colors associated with a sunset, plus two humorous sculptures made of polyurethane-clad wood that appear to be intrinsic to it, tire rims with Google lettering and artificial floral decorations. For Guan Xiao, the surfaces of the light boxes (or monitors) are the preeminent interfaces for the meeting of material and non-material, online and offline worlds. The artist presents us with an arrangement of light that appeals to our senses, one that touches on the worlds of romantic feelings, that also causes past and future to come together, metaphorically. The question of what the objects and the image combinations actually mean is left to the viewer. We decide what we are seeing, what we want to see – and how we see. That is the implicit, humanist message of these semiotic core-drillings by Guan Xiao.