The project is rooted in the labor, passions, relationships and spirituality of a Naxi village in Yunnan, China. Over the centuries, the worldview of Jixiang Village  has been continually transformed by daily negotiation with natural forces, Han culture, state ideologies, tourist influx, and the inevitable process of modernization. These negotiations cause many conflicts, compromises and sacrifices—many sites of tension that are mediated through shamanic rituals and local mythologies.

This project is informed by my residency in Yunnan where I observed the process of “green developments” as initiated by the state as well as by local farmer efforts. “Green development” strives to create new natural systems to replace old ones. The structural rifts generated in this process are often obscure yet deeply affect society, ecology, culture and even cosmology. Cheung’s work is not a direct answer to the structural rifts of society, but regards these point of change as opportunities to create a new cosmology. Cheung has worked alongside loca lshamans to develop an organic form ofwriting through her interactions with th causal chain of plant-medicine-herb-body-nature-society.

Clear Waters, Green Mountains, Mountains of Gold and Silver is a “written” landscape that is best viewed while walking. This landscape has evolved from her research on botanicals and herbal medicines; it is an invented ideographic script system that engages indialogue with the Naxi Dongba script.

Cheung’s other work, Fertility, Economy,and Power, uses 37 fables to explor the conflicting fields of ethnicity, culture, tourism, economy, and land fertility. These landscapes are counterpoints to those in Clear Waters, Green Mountains,Mountains of Gold and Silver, and begin with the fable of the cycle of life and death, collected by the artist in Yunnan’s Lashihai region.  The artwork’s resemblance to fable problematizes the notion of fable as a “prehistorical” narrative mode. Through her field work, Cheung points out that fableis actually something that arises when the ecological cycle is drastically thrown out ofbalance.

本项目源于云南纳西族村民的劳动、热情、关系和精神。几个世纪以来，吉祥村的世界观一直受到自然力量、汉文化、国家意识形态、游客涌入以及现代化进程的必然协商过程而不断变化。这些谈判导致许多冲突、妥协和牺牲——而许多的紧张局势往往是通过当地仪式和神话来调解的。

在本次展览中,张欣的工作聚焦在她自2018 年起对于云南的“绿色发展”的具体观察和介入。绿色开发往往会发明新的自然体系来覆盖掉旧的自然体系。其中产生的结构性断裂常常隐而不显,却广泛影响到社会、生态、文化甚至当地宇宙学的层面。张欣的一系列创作并不是直接处理社会性的结构断裂,而是将各种断裂视为重新制作一种新的宇宙学的条件。张欣使用她自 2013 年以来从她与植物-药材-中医-人体-自然-社会的一连串互动中所发展出的有机形态的写作,与当地萨满共同工作。她探索各种云南纳西族的具体生态和文化场景,并找到一种身体内外互动的节奏感。张欣以在墙上写出的一片风景《绿水青山金山银山》必须边走边看,这幅风景从她对植物药材的研究发展而来,也是能够与当地纳西族的祭祀语言东巴文能够进行对话的开放式表意系统。
张欣的另一件作品《肥力、经济、权力》以 37 篇类似寓言的结构呈现一系列她在当地所见的各种冲突的场域:族群、文化、旅游业、经济、土地肥力。这些风景和《绿水青山金山银山》相互对应,始于云南拉市海地带采集的生死轮回的寓言。在这里,环境被自然力量、汉文化、国家意识以及不可避免的现代化进程叠加影响,结果是一系列的纷争、妥协和牺牲。作品类似寓言的形式提出一个重要的问题:寓言往往被认为是“时间开始以前”的叙述模式。透过自己的田野实践,张欣指出,寓言实际上是生态循环极度不平衡的变动时刻都会产生的事物。

当树木能移动，当石缝能语，当大地作声隆隆，当万物都还只是一元初始，天和地的阴影正开始慢慢浮现。