Longitude+109.88+E+and+Latitude+31.09+N+by+Zhuang+Hui

** Longitude 109.88 E and Latitude 31.09 N **


Title: Longitude 109.88 E and Latitude 31.09 N Artist: Zhuang Hui Country: China Culture/Ethnicity: Chinese Date: 1995-2008 Period: Contemporary Medium: Mixed media installation including color and black-and-white prints from digital photographs, map, and three DVD videos. Current Location: Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University
 * Identification**

Chinese contemporary artist Zhuang Hui created a conceptual photography exhibit titled //Longitude 109.88 E and Latitude 31.09 N// in response to the creation of the world's largest hydroelectric power plant, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China. Hui’s photography exhibit was part of a larger reactionary narrative exhibition held at the Smart Museum of Art located in the University of Chicago. The collaborative exhibition, "Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art” was held October 2, 2008 to January 25, 2009. The exhibition was composed of powerful works by four noteworthy contemporary Chinese artists that incorporated four diverse branches of contemporary Chinese art. Despite the differences in backgrounds and artistic practices, the four artists have engaged with the general theme of displacement caused by the construction of the dam.
 * Introduction**

Zhuang Hui presents his work in the "Displacement" exhibition as a mixed media installation of black-and-white digital photographs, a map, and three DVD videos documenting the development of his work (Smart Museum of Art, 2008). The work is presented as a grid of black-and-white photographs that reveal extravegant detailed images of the cavities he made in the earth; a component in his documentaion process that comments on displacement created by the Three Gorges Dam. Zhuang began research and documentation for this piece in April 1995, one year after construction of the dam began (Smart, 2008). He bored holes into three sites: a construction area near the dam itself, the shore along the Wuxia Gorge, and "White Emporer City", a historic site and tourist destination (Lind, 2008). The holes were drilled to mark designated areas of land that would be underwater at the time of the dam's completion. Zhuang's photographic installation includes thirty black-and-white photographs, each of which presents a close up view of one of the holes. Framed above so that the hole is parallel to the picture plane, these deadpan images are surprisingly captivating (Lind, 2008). They preserve not only Zhuang's modest interventions into these sites but also the everyday beauty of plants, rocks, and dirt that surround the area: The diverse textures of a landscape that are about to be irrevocably altered (Lind 2008). The magnified images of each hole vary in tone, shadow, angle and composition. There are three rows of framed photographs, consisting of ten alligned photographs in each row, all equivelant in dimension. The secular quality of each image conveys a powerful sense of nature in an exceptionally pure form. Although the images are free of color, variation exists through shading and distinctive line variation between the textures of the diverse elements found in the earth. The particular placement of each photograph illuminates the many differences in the ground plains; a characteristic that additionally contributes to the natural ingenuous quality of the collection. Related materials include a map identifying the three locations of the holes and three thirty minute DVDs which show the sites as they are now, below water level.The power of the videos lies within the revealing qualities of documenting new water, bridges and shorelines that have emerged and exposes the property of the holes that have long since been flooded. Nevertheless, their memory and all other things that have disappeared have been etched indelibly in our minds (Greenberg, 2010). This work encompasses performance, the passage of time, photographic documentation, and social commentary.
 * Descriptive Analysis**

Zhuang Hui visited several sites along the Yangtze River that he knew would soon be under water from the new reservoir, created by the dam construction. In what was perhaps the last instance of human mark-making upon these pieces of land, Zhuang equipped the site for purpose of documentation. The artist used a //Luoyang// shovel--a long poled drill invented by tomb robbers in traditional China--to dig the holes in the various sites (Foumberg, 2009). Zhuang documented his work by taking photographs of the various holes in the landscapes before the final completion of the dam (the images above show his documentation prior to the dam's completion). In 2005, Zhuang sent a photographer to all three sites to document each site underwater. Presumably Zhuang Hui's tool is incidental to his kilometer-long drawing in dirt, but the metaphoric implications of the tool are too powerful to ignore. In a sense, he is simultaneously digging the river's grave and plundering its treasures (Weinberg, 2008). Using a so-called conceptual method, Zhuang tries hard to push an objective or non-emotinal stance by making use of maps and black-and-white photographt to doument his project. The outcome though, is wholly emotional- to the work's bennefit (Weinberg, 2008). Along with the other artists, Zhuang is able to portray the world-changing impact of the dam without telling the viewers what to think about it.
 * Contextual Analysis**

The Three Gorges Dam was created to provide generation of hydro-electric power equivalent to the yearly output of fifteen nuclear power plants. Construction of the dam is additionally intended to reduce and manage the persistent flooding problems in the area; an issue that has been historically problematic and responsible for the deaths of 300,000 people in the twentieth century (Weinberg, 2008). Completion of this project allows the dam to supply one ninth of China’s electricity and has provided employment for 40,000 people (Smart Museum of Art, 2008). Despite the purpose and progress the dam has brought, the dam's reservoir has displaced one million and counting individuals living in 1400 towns and villages along its shores (Weinberg, 2008). The land submerged by this reservoir was also home to nearly 9,000 archeological sites, 8,000 of which will remain unexplored. The starkness of the photographs recalls an unrelated project. In the 1990s, Chinese archaeologists made an emergency dig in the Three Gorges region in order to retrieve some of the unexplored and undocumented objects buried in areas that would be underwater when the reservoir filled (Foumberg, 2009).

The first exhibition of “Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art” was held October 2, 2008 to January 25, 2009 at the Smart Museum of Art in the University of Chicago. Art historian, curator and professor at the University of Chicago, Wu Hung organized the Displacement exhibition to engage viewers in a deeper understanding for contemporary Chinese art in the context that it is made. Wu Hung designed the exhibition to focus on a very specific time and place; a concept relevant for a Chicago audience (Smart Museum of Art, 2008).The subsequent thematic exhibition aimed to deeply connect China to the western world through an informative approach that relates through an environmental connection, yet at the same time reveals how little we know about each other. This exhibition presents work of four highly respected leading contemporary Chinese artists who attain international reputations- Chen Qiulin, Yun-Fei Ji, Liu Xiaodong, and Zhuang Hui. Each artist was chosen to expose their creative response to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest and most controversial hydroelectric project ever to be constructed. The powerful works on view are engaged in the theme of displacement, responding to the movement of people, the demolition of old towns and construction of new citites, and the astonishing changes the project is bringing to the local landscape. A variety of mediums are used in the exhibition, representative of four major branches of contemporary Chinese art: Performance and new media art, traditional ink painting, realist oil painting and conceptual photography (Herald Sun, 2010). Exposed through the multiplicity of artistic mediums, the exhibition reveals the true meaning of displacement; whether it be by the government or forced by nature, the end result is the loss of personal and public history and for future generations- memory has been erased (Greenberg, 2010). The works in this exhibition present the pros and cons of the dam, emphasizing the notorious damage created by the project that is sure to have a lasting social, environmental, and global consequence (Smart Museum of Art, 2008). "Displacement," like many temporary exhibitions, is the product of several years' worth of research, writing, travels to artist studios and coordination with curators and institutions. As Wu Hung sees it, the artist reactions in "Displacement" are also political- simply by way of participation. Those significantly effected by the dam (the resettled communities) are giving up a lot- their native homes, their land, their way of life- and suffering a bit for the good of the whole. Regardless of these severe circumstances, neither Wu Hung nor the four artists in the show seem to be passing judgment on the project. The hardships of resettlement, labor and loss- all the human elements- are represented through an even-handed approach. It's well documented that the displaced residents, having lost their old way of life, but gaining modern dwellings, and many living with running water for the first time, widely accept the building of the dam as benneficial to the whole (Weinberg, 2008). The four artists in the exhibition selected by Wu Hung all approach their art with a strong narrative arc, and all make art on a monumental scale, just like the dam. One need only visit "Displacement," to get a sense of how floods permeate the cultural and historical psyche of the riverbank's inhabitants (Weinberg, 2008). A second exhibition of "Displacement" is currently being held at the Nasher Museum of Art in Duke University. The exhibition began March 25, 2010 and will end July 25, 2010. The Nasher Museum at Duke University is the final venue for the exhibition (Nasher Museum, 2010).
 * Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition**



The world's largest generator of hydro-electric power is located on the Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world. The Three Gorges Damn on the Yangtze River has forced more than 1.3 million people to leave their homes, its 375-mile reservoir has flooded almost 1400 towns and villages, and contaminants from the inundated buildings are polluting the Yangtze (Hvistendahl, 2008). Supporters in China point out that the dam supplies one-ninth of the country's electric power, lowers greenhouse gas emissions, boosts trade to the interior and controls deadly flooding (Herald Sun, 2010). However, comments regarding the dam's abilities confirm what geologists, biologists and environmentalists had been warning about for years: building a massive hydropower dam in an area that is heavily populated, home to threatened animal and plant species, and crossed by geologic fault lines is a recipe for disaster (Bosshard, 2009). Among the damage wrought: "There's been a lot less rain, a lot more drought, and the potential for increased disease," says George Davis, a tropical medicine specialist at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington D.C., who has worked in the Yangtze River Basin and neighboring provinces for 24 years. Completion of the dam has resulted in unpredicitable changes in the environment, not to mention the ecosystem of the whole region could potentially be disrupted if it has not been already (Economy, 2004). Local news media report that whole villages of people relocated to make room for the dam will have to move a second time because of the landslides and tremors, indicating that officials failed to forsee the full magnitude of the dam's effects (Bosshard, 2009). The biodiversity is threteaned as the dam floods some habitats, reduces water flow to others, and alters weather patterns. Economic development has spurred deforestation and pollution in surrounding provinces in China, endangering at least 57 plants, including the Chinese dove tree and the dawn redwood (Bosshard, 2009). The dam further imperils delicate fish populations in the Yangtze. Downstream, near where the river empties into the East China Sea, the land around the Yangtze contains some of the densest clusters of human habitation in the world, and overfishing has already endangered 25 of the river's 177 unique fish species. According to a 2003 letter to Science by Wuhan University ecologist Ping Xie, many of these fish evolved over time with the Yangtze flood plain. As the dam decreases flooding downstream, it will fragment the network of lakes around the middle as well as lower the Yangtze's water level, making it difficult for the fish to survive. The project has already contributed to the decline of the baiji dolphin, which is so rare it is considered functionally extinct (Bosshard, 2009).
 * Environmental Impact of the Three Gorges Dam**

Back to Environmental Issues in China


 * References**

//Print Sources// Economy, Elizabeth C. The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future. //Cornell University.// 2004.

Smart Museum of Art. 2008. Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese art. //University of Chicago//. Accessed March 25, 2099 at [|http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/education/downloads/displacement_handout.pdf]. - handout including basic background information about the exhibit from its creators

//Online Sources// Bosshard, Peter. 2009. Three Gorges Dam to be Completed. Accessed March 29, 2010 at []. - review of environmental implications on dam construction and the Yangtze River.

Embassy of the People's Republic of China. 2009. The Three Gorges Project: A Brief Introduction. Accessed March 25, 2009 at []

Foumberg, Jason. 2009. After the Deluge: Wu Hung puts the flood of contemporary Chinese art in context. //Newcity Art//. Accessed April 19, 2009 at []. - review of the exhibit

Greenberg, Blue. The Human Cost of the Three Gorges Dam. //The Herald Sun//. June, 2010. Accessed June 11, 2010 at [] -

Lind, C.J. 2008. Displacement Artists and Works: Press Release. Smart Museum of Art. Accessed June 2, 2010 at [].- review of Zhuang Hui's contribution in exhibit

Nasher Museum of Art. 2010. Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art. //Duke University.// 2010- review of exhibit

The Herald Sun. January, 2010. Perspectives on the Three Gorges Dam. Accessed June 11, 2010 at []? - review of Nasher Museum exhibit

Weinberg, Lauren. 2008. Art review: Displacement. //Time Out Chicago//. Accessed March 25, 2009 at []. - review of exhibition and some explanation of environmental implications

//Other useful links// Hvistendahl, Mara. 2008. China's Three Gorges Dam: An Environmental Catastrophe? Scientific American. Accessed March 25, 2009 at [].