Ji Yun Fei

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 12-July 31, 2016.

Edited by Shannon Fitzgerald. Essays by Melissa Chiu, Tan Lin and Gregory Volk. Foreword by Paul Ha.

Background Story examines Contemporary Chinese art, featuring artists who subvert the conventions of Chinese culture and tradition, using progressive mediums such as digital animation and installation to create an entirely new approach.

Published on the occasion of an exhibition held at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Oct. 16, 2011-Jan. 8, 2012 and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y., Jan. 30-Apr. 29, 2012.

This monograph features Beijing-born artist's acclaimed scrolls, sculptures, and drawings. In his stunning impressionistic works, Yun-Fei Ji takes on the thousand-year-old practice of Chinese scroll painting, employing ink on paper as his primary medium, and landscape as his central subject. Rather than adopting the idealism characteristic of traditional scroll painting, Ji presents the gritty reality of life in contemporary China. In this comprehensive monograph, Ji's works bridge the gap between modernity and tradition. Essays explore themes of community, dislocation, and environmental degradation as well as Chinese folklore and its rapid decline in his native country's culture.

"The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River in China is a massive project entwined in controversy. When finally completed in 2009, it will stand as the world's largest generator of hydroelectric power, with a yearly output equal to that of fifty million tons of coal or fifteen nuclear power plants. However, the dam's 375-mile reservoir has already displaced over one million people and submerged over one thousand towns and villages. This publication examines the work that four leading contemporary Chinese artists - Chen Qiulin, Yun-Fei Ji, Liu Xiaodong, and Zhuang Hui - have created in response to the dam. Despite differences in backgrounds and artistic practices, these artists have engaged with the theme of displacement, responding to the movement of people, the demolition of old towns and construction of new cities, and the astonishing changes the project is bringing to the local landscape. Their powerful works represent four major branches of contemporary Chinese art: ink painting, realist oil painting, conceptual photography, and performance and new media art." "Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art continues a series of Smart Museum catalogues produced in conjunction with Wu Hung's groundbreaking exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art. Through extensive illustrations, interviews, and a substantial essay by Wu Hung, the publication documents the exhibiting artists' work, backgrounds, and concerns. Other essays extend consideration to representations of the Three Gorges Dam in film and in contemporary art in the West. Moving beyond any single medium or trend, Displacement offers nuanced, thought-provoking perspectives on a project of great social, environmental, and global concern."--BOOK JACKET.

Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. When the Body Is the Material -- 1 Hurray for People: Yvonne Rainer -- 2 Concretions: Carolee Schneemann -- 3 Reasons to Move: Vito Acconci -- Coda. Forming the Senses -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z -- Illustration Credits