He looks at human interactions across race, gender and culture. He uses quite a lot of text in his work, mostly Chinese, English and his own made up script. This brings up the problems associated with translations and cross cultural understanding.
His works are often large scale installations which explore the changes taking place in the world in the face of globalisation. While looking at the world on a global scale he also makes the work personal with his use of materials such as human hair and powdered placenta. The use of hair is interesting on another level as in the time of the Qing Dynasty (early 1600s-early 1900s) in China people believed their souls were in their ponytails.
Many of Gu's artworks question tradition and prompt viewers to think about language, its functions and its relationship with identity. Oppression is another theme prevalent in Gu's work as with other contemporary Chinese artists such as Xu Bing.
United Nations was a 15 year project where Gu used the hair of over a million people and made 21 site-specific monuments in countries around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world went to see these works, they brought people together in shared experience.
