.JPG) Liu Xiaodong, Hotbed (detail), 2005, Oil on canvas, in five panels | |
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River in China is a massive project entwined in controversy. It will soon stand as the world’s largest generator of hydro-electric power, with a yearly output equal to fifty million tons of coal or fifteen nuclear power plants. However, the dam has already displaced more than 1 million people and destroyed more than one thousand towns and villages.
Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art features four of China’s leading contemporary artists—Chen Qiulin, Yun-Fei Ji, Liu Xiaodong, and Zhuang Hui—whose work responds to the building of the dam. These individuals consider the project and their rapidly changing landscape through four major branches of contemporary Chinese art: ink painting, realist oil painting, conceptual photography, and performance and new media art. This exhibition presents an opportunity for reflection about contemporary artists and their social role today.
Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art is organized by the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago. The exhibition is curated by Wu Hung, Smart Museum Consulting Curator, Harrie A. Vanderstappen, Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago, in consultation with Jessica Moss, Smart Museum Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, and Stephanie Smith, Smart Museum Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Curator of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition and related programs have been supported by Dan Bo, the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, and the University of Chicago Women’s Board, and the Center for East Asian Studies. The accompanying publication was made possible by a generous gift from Fred Eychaner and Tommy Yang Guo.
The Salt Lake Art Center's presentation of Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art is made possible in part through support from the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, Alternative Visions and the Kanter Family Foundation. |
