Extension in Sway
Home Chang
鴥彼晨風鬱彼北林 , 2020
The Falcon Flies Above To the Thick Northern Wood
soil, thatch, moss
Chongqing, China
On my first visit to Xiguan Lei's secret garden, the humid air and the lushness were quiet but vibrant in the rainy season. We climbed a small hill and walked through dilapidated houses, seeing greenery of varying heights, lowers, or runs through adobes. The adobes were unusual. Some lay flat along the terrain, resembling the rune of the field, while others were stacked upwards vertically, endowing them with a sense of order, totem, and mystery.
Xi gathers material on the spot including soil and plants to create his works. Surrounded by mosses, ferns, and seed plants, the hand-made adobes are arranged solidly in a structural manner. This is the most iconic series of his works whose titles are quoted from classical Chinese literature: the Book of Songs and the Songs of Chu, such as It is Nice to be in the Garden, There is a Sandalwood (乐彼之园，爰有树檀) (2019), Swoop Flies that Falcon, Dense that Northern Wood (鴥彼晨风，郁彼北林) (2020), and The Appearance and Height of the Lush Plants Match Beautifully (纷緼宜修) (2020). Xi borrows these responses from ancient Chinese philosophers to the rhythms of nature, alluding to the unity of the abstract structure and figurative content in his works, and the fusion of classical Eastern aesthetics with Western spatial geometry. Legitimately, Xi calls his works "Land Art" rather than installations or sculptures. In terms of Land Art, it uses nature as the creative medium, and always emphasizes the visual form of the site-specific context, looking for an organic integration between the works and nature. One Issues from the Dark Valley and Removes to the Lofty Tree (出自幽谷，迁于乔木) (2019) , one of the series of adobes, created in 2019 and eroded back to the land during the rainy season in 2021, which is a vivid projection of the journey of human life.
紛緼宜修 紛緼宜修 , 2020
The Appearance and Height of the Lush Plants Match Beautifully
soil, thatch, chaff
47×40×176cm
Chongqing, China
施于中谷維葉莫莫 , 2021
In the Midst of the Vale, Teir Leaves Grow Lush on Soil
soil, thatch
Chongqing, China
I’ve toiled in a studio of trees,
Where the sun’s footprints
are stars strewn across earth.
Where dead branches lead to secret stairs,
Where footprints call out to footprints,
half in a cave, half not yet in it,
Where caves call out to caves.
The wind moves through all of this
as I move through this thick forest.
Plateaus call out to plateaus,
High above my head.
XGL. 2023, Forest, Translator Rich Goodson
野有蔓草零露漙兮有美一人清揚婉兮 , 2020
Afield the Creeping Grass, With Crystal Dew O'verspread, There's a Beautiful Lass With Clear Eyes and Fine Forehead
soil, weathered rock powder, thatch, stone, moss
Dali, China
In 1970, the spiral jetty made by Robert Smithson, an early American land artist, laid out a pile of stones in a snail-shaped ring into the salt lake, as if a Neolithic structure or Stonehenge. The jetty presents a macro landscape devoid of detail. It has to be experienced through “looking”; Xi’s methodology is influenced by Descartes' and Spinoza's geometric concepts including Rectangular Setup and Extension, Einstein's theory of space, and the mathematical ideas of Euler and Gauss. He lays out the material in a particular shape, size, volume, and manner. We can see the sharp and hard edges and minimalism everywhere in the various forms of adobes and plants, with parts of the works independent of and also participating in the whole. Xi advocates that the viewer “walk through” the landscape and perceive the deep connection with nature. Put together, the images of their works both reveal the sense of mystery and miracle, where artistic phenomena are created and disappear in the rhythm of nature.
Nowadays, the famous Echigo-Tsumari Land Art Festival in Japan aims to reflect the relationship between human civilization and nature. The artistic director Fulang Kitagawa holds a distinct attitude of institutional criticism, which is he avoids introducing commercial capital into the festival and regards the practice of land art as a project facing the pastoral and cultural revival. Similarly, Xi has rejected invitations to many artistic events over the years, pursuing closeness to nature emotionally and absolute freedom of life. It is their "clumsy" persistence that achieves the most essential and charming connection between human and natural fields. "The contemporary exhibition system has gradually lost its avant-garde and in-depth exploration of art, and what is more real is the operation of interests and power networks behind the scenes," Xi said. Xi explores the nature of the human body, inner experience, and state of life: "I always imprint the marks of various parts of the body on the soil, including footprints, hand-prints, ankles, knees, thighs, penis, elbows, shoulders, etc. These marks are my reflections on the Body-Symbol-Abstract".
Over the Fence, 2023
Ink on Nepalese paper
51×76cm
However, Xi has also sometimes turned his attention to the public. In his project I IS ANOTHER, people with different identities are the objects of reading each other, as a translation medium for personalized understanding and creation of oracle bone inscriptions. Under the connection of words, people are not only independent at the subjective level but also as "another" passively become a public group connected by social culture with other individuals.
Does a work of art have to be exhibited at a public event? How should the viewers interact deeply with Land Art? In his rural life, Xi disdains the discourse system of contemporary art and focuses on artistic meditation and creation. "I am not in a hurry to make these artistic practices produce value immediately. I am conscious of how many things I have done, how many things I have thought about but haven't had time to do or record, and how many things are still questionable. At present, my primary job is to make all the things I think about and solve the problems in my creation...I cherish the little boat of my art, just like the ancient Chinese poet Su Shi said: The boat passed away, I will leave the rest of my life in the sea”, he clarified.