Hu Yun: The Dispersal Stories of Plants and People
Interview/Text/Editor: Chen Yuan
"Hu Yun: Mount Analogue", installation view, Rockbund Art Museum, 2024.03.23-08.25, photo by Yan Tao, ©️Rockbund Art Museum
The "Hu Yun: Mount Analogue” at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai focuses on the artist's long-standing interest in the histories of colonialism and the processes of globalization involving various group movements. Through a series of installations and multimedia works, it explores, documents, and bears witness to the dispersal experiences of human and non-human entities.
The entrance to the exhibition is located on the fifth floor of the Rockbund Art Museum. As the elevator doors open, a small yet pivotal piece, Hu Yun's The Unknown Clouds, is immediately to the right: 376 grains of rice, each engraved with a name, are contained in a damaged blue-and-white porcelain cup, half-embedded in the exhibition wall. These names, mostly lacking surnames, are the result of translating—or mistranslating—the Cantonese dialect of the Taishan area in Guangdong into English phonetic pronunciation. These “abbreviated, alienated, and even distorted” names, representing the smallest unit of identity, reflect the mass displacement of Chinese gold miners at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. "These names actually come from a list I discovered while researching the history of Australian gold miners, who were predominantly from the Guangdong Taishan area," Hu Yun explains. "Through this exhibit, I aim to make the presence of these marginalized groups felt."
Attentive visitors can find, on the fourth floor, a recording of an elderly man reading these names. His nasal, barely audible dialect pronunciation creates a somber and heavy atmosphere—mirroring the role of these Chinese labor groups in the globalization process, much like this fragile linguistic system, gradually marginalized and eventually lost.
"HU YUN: MOUNT ANALOGUE", INSTALLATION VIEW, ROCKBUND ART MUSEUM, 2024.03.23-08.25, PHOTO BY YAN TAO, ©️ROCKBUND ART MUSEUM
Other works on the fifth floor also attempt to excavate and reconstruct the forgotten stories of people and objects in history, such as Untitled (from the narrative of a five years expedition). This work is based on illustrations from a memoir that captures the author's conflicting emotions as a colonizer from a personal perspective. Hu Yun has re-edited specific elements within these illustrations and left vast amounts of empty space, implying the violence behind selective historical records.
Descending the staircase, there is a series of watercolor works titled Unregistered. The pigments used in these color swatches all come from “super plants” that were scientifically “rediscovered.” These plants have the remarkable ability to absorb heavy metals from the soil and, in the context of excessive resource extraction, have become the “miners” of the future for humanity. Hu Yun has depicted these plants in the form of color swatches, creating “portraitures” that break free from the conventional nomenclature of information classification systems. By documenting them in an abstract manner, these works reflect the environmental impact of human activities and our dependence on nature.
The overarching theme that connects the exhibition spaces extends from the fifth floor's No Such Person to the fourth. This piece comprises three elements: a candle, a copper plate, and a letter. The candle is made from wax secreted by white wax insects—a natural wax originally from China and documented by French missionaries in Shanghai as part of the Western “natural system.” As the candle burns and melts, the drips fall onto a copper plate, replicated from an imprint of the headstone of the "Nestorian Stele," maintaining the insect wax in a liquid state on the heated plate briefly, before re-solidifying as it drips and cools on a letter located on the fourth floor—part of Hu Yun's personal collection: Danh Vo's work 2.02.1861 (2009-). Hu Yun uses a blend of objects, materials, and spatial arrangements to disrupt the linear logic of historical cognition, drawing attention to the fate of people and things forgotten by history.
Hu Yun, No Such Person, 2024, Chinese wax candle, electroformed copper plate, and Danh Vo, 2.02.1861 (2009-), overall dimensions variable
Another example, Escape (Revisit Memory 1941-2013), is rooted in the artist Hu Yun’s memories of his grandfather. In his youth, his grandfather left his hometown of Cixi in Ningbo for livelihood reasons and never returned. Many years later, Hu Yun decided to follow the "memory map" left by his grandfather to "revisit" their shared "hometown." He documented this journey of revisitation with 62 slides, which are projected one by one in the exhibition hall, allowing visitors to become participants in this journey. He juxtaposes various archives and deploys wandering narrators within the exhibition space, who intermittently share stories about individual and epochal fates through their personal interpretations and explanations to the audience.
Hu Yun, Escape (Revisit Memory 1941-2013), 2013, positive slides with timer, 62 pieces, dimensions variable
Hu Yun's solo exhibition is closely related with the architectural history of the Rockbund Art Museum. Located on the fourth floor, the exhibition’s central installation, The Hollow-Men, might readily be interpreted as a medium for display, yet it primarily serves as a concentrated presentation of the theme: it references the display cabinets used during the opening of the Royal Asia Society (R.A.S.) in 1933, substituting the original glass enclosures with soft fabric. Constructed in 1933, the building once housed China's earliest natural history museum—the Royal Asia Society (R.A.S.). By situating his exhibition in this historical edifice, Hu Yun aims to awaken a reflection on the museological categorization and construction of knowledge. “These display cabinets are essentially interpretations and reconstructions of the natural world by humans,” Hu Yun explains. “Through the reinterpretation of this setup, I want the viewers to consider the power dynamics and discourses behind the museum structure.”
Hu Yun, The Hollow-Men, 2024, elastic mesh, UHMWPE rope, dimensions variable, rendering by Roll. Image courtesy of the artist and Roll
Exhibition display in the R.A.S. Museum
「INTERVIEW」
The Unknown Clouds features rice grain micro-carvings accompanied by a spoken audio interpretation, which subtly and metaphorically communicates how official language systems suppress the personal identities of laborers. This evocative approach truly moves me. What initially drew your attention to individuals and groups forgotten by history?
Hu Yun: I believe this feeling is common among those who have lived abroad, as stepping outside of China, I profoundly experience the existence of myself within the Chinese diaspora. I find the sense of distinction intriguing and it piques my interest in learning about these histories. These groups have long been marginalized and forgotten, and I want my work to focus on them and explore the complex reasons behind this. For example, the gold miners in Australia, despite playing a significant role in the process of globalization at the time, have remained largely unknown and on the peripheries of society. Their names and identities have been misunderstood and forgotten, due to complex historical and social factors. I believe this state of being forgotten reflects a common phenomenon: even amidst the waves of globalization, many marginalized groups exist whose presence and contributions are often overlooked.
My interest is not limited to overseas Chinese communities; I am also focused on the experiences of foreigners in China. Their life experiences and choices often reveal intriguing questions about modernity and globalization. For example, the early missionaries who came to China introduced concepts such as the modern museum, yet the development of these concepts in China diverged from the Western trajectory. Through these individuals' stories, I hope to explore broader historical and social issues.
For example, the work Journey without a Destination originated from your study of the 1908 American expedition organized by explorer Robert Sterling Clark. Escape (Revisit Memory 1941—2013) documents your revisit to the hometown remembered by your grandfather, and Lift with Care features the handheld travel suitcase left by your grandfather, which contains items like survey maps from the Royal Asiatic Society (R.A.S.). Why did you choose a narrative approach that centers on individual/family memories?
Hu Yun: For me, no matter how grand the topic, what emerges in my mind are the individual images of each person. These people are the key links connecting us to these events. I hope to provide viewers with a more egalitarian approach to accessing these histories through personal objects and experiences, rather than overloading them with specific details.
I believe the essence of both history and social phenomena lies in the people. When focusing on marginalized groups, I do not wish to simply explain their situations from a macro perspective but rather to create a more direct connection and emotional response through the specific experiences of individuals. Take, for instance, my grandfather’s life experiences; although they may seem ordinary, they reflect a microcosm of China's modern history. I deliberately avoid giving too much specific identification information about these individuals, hoping instead that viewers will make connections and imagine on their own. This personal narrative approach makes my work more open-ended and interactive. Viewers can complement and connect these fragmented pieces of information based on their own understanding, thereby producing their own interpretations. By doing this, I hope to make the audience co-creators of these historical narratives, rather than passive recipients.
Palm, as a tropical plant, frequently appears in museums, photos, and illustrations. It is also an important carrier of early Buddhist texts and reflects the globalization process under colonialism. How do you explore the cultural meaning and power relations implied by this plant symbol in your works?
Hu Yun: I believe that palm trees have gradually lost their original ecological significance from being natural landscapes to decorative accents. They are a meaningful symbol that reflects human modification and utilization of nature in the process of globalization. Therefore, I intersperse palm tree paintings throughout my exhibitions, like illustrations that appear or disappear, sometimes being overlooked by the audience, sometimes generating new associations.
In addition to palm trees, you will also find other plant elements in the exhibition. For example, in a work from the “Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art” in Australia, I discovered some special plants that can survive in soil contaminated with heavy metals and even absorb and store these metal elements. These "super plants" caught my interest, so I collaborated with a painter to create a set of watercolors using the extracted metal elements from these plants. In this exhibition, I applied each color to a small color card and displayed them in the space of a fire escape staircase. These colors are not the actual colors of the plants but are derived from the metal elements they absorb. These plants are like marginalized labor groups that have long been ignored. They are discovered and utilized, yet few pay attention to their own situation. This state of being discovered and utilized parallels that of historically forgotten groups, who are also part of the globalization process and reflect human exploitation and modification of nature.
"Mind Breaths" as a participatory artwork, how do you hope to involve the audience in body practice to engage with and reflect on history?
Hu Yun: I aim to break the traditional pattern where the audience passively receives information, enabling them to become co-creators of the exhibition content. This means that the artwork should not be a static, objectified entity but rather a dynamic, open process. I hope the audience will actively participate and use their own feelings and associations to construct and enrich the meaning of the work. At the same time, I wish this form of participation to provoke deeper thought and experiences about the exhibition. The audience will no longer passively accept my narrative but will become active participants and constructors. This interactivity may trigger reflections on broader topics such as history, society, and nature among the viewers.
The exhibition layout and guidebook follow entirely distinct routes, specifically "Natural History Museum," "Expedition Shên-kan,” and “Unlit, Unnamed, Unregistered" yet the artworks are not rigorously arranged according to these paths but are scattered throughout the exhibition hall. Why deliberately use this approach? What kind of significance do you want the viewers to realize during their visit?
Hu Yun: I placed the entrance on the fifth floor because the spatial design of this level is quite interesting, allowing the audience to overlook the entire exhibition hall from a circular corridor. Additionally, this entrance is a new wing added after the renovation of the Rockbund Art Museum, not the original main entrance. I wanted the audience to enter the exhibition through a "back door" that originally did not exist, which creates a sensation of entering a "historical segment." The circular corridor on the fifth floor also perfectly complements my exhibition layout. Viewers can oversee the entire hall from here, understanding the relationships between the artworks. This advantage in perspective allows the audience to comprehend and experience the exhibition in a more comprehensive manner, setting the tone for subsequent exploration.
The routes proposed in the exhibition guidebook are suggestions from the museum. Given that my works involve a lot of research and travel, they thought it would be possible to set some suggested routes for reference. For me, these are merely possibilities and do not imply that visitors must follow them. On the contrary, I hope that visitors will move freely through the exhibition space according to their own interests and feelings, discovering unexpected connections along the way. This openness is precisely the exhibition experience I wish to create.
