\u0f66\u0f0b\u0f42\u0f5e\u0f72\u0f0b\u0f66\u0f94\u0f7c\u0f53\u0f0b\u0f54\u0f7c\u0f0b\u0f60\u0f42\u0fb1\u0f74\u0f62\u0f0d (The Earth Turned Green) is a solo exhibition by artist Shen Xin featuring an installation that centers restorative practices drawn from the Tibetan language through performance, land and family histories. Xin\u2019s work as a moving image artist often explores potential relations outside of nationalistic belonging. Their recent research focuses on multitudes of the self and the other, as well as the interrelationship between culture and ecology.<\/p>\n
Positioned in the center of the gallery,\u00a0\u0f66\u0f0b\u0f42\u0f5e\u0f72\u0f0b\u0f66\u0f94\u0f7c\u0f53\u0f0b\u0f54\u0f7c\u0f0b\u0f60\u0f42\u0fb1\u0f74\u0f62\u0f0d (The Earth Turned Green)<\/em> is a\u00a0three-channel video and sound installation consisting of a\u00a0film with subtitles in Tibetan and English.<\/p>\n A projected image is visible on both sides of a\u00a0floor-to-ceiling screen, dividing the room into two viewing spaces, with text projected on the ground of each side. Using stage lighting in a\u00a0theater, the film depicts a\u00a0day\u2019s passing in winter, spring, summer and fall. The audio track and corresponding subtitles are reflections on the recorded imagery by\u00a0Shen\u00a0Xin\u00a0together with their Tibetan language teacher, \u0f66\u0f90\u0fb1\u0f72\u0f51\u0f0b\u0f51\u0f62\u0f0b\u0f60\u0f5b\u0f7c\u0f58\u0f66\u0f0d (Ji Ta Zong),\u00a0who verbalize the movement of light and color through conversations in the process of teaching and learning Tibetan.<\/p>\n The installation was formed collaboratively through a\u00a0series of scripts. To begin, Xin\u00a0wrote directions for lighting technician Kyle Gavell to develop a\u00a0performance for stage lights that would represent a\u00a0day within each of the four seasons. Next, Xin transcribed in Mandarin what they saw in the recording of the lights on the stage. Ji then translated that description into Tibetan, which served as the materials and learning tools for their conversations in Mandarin and Tibetan over twelve lessons. In addition to reading the Tibetan text together, Xin\u00a0poses questions in response to their learning such as:\u00a0\u200b\u201cWhy is the night motherly?\u201d or\u00a0\u200b\u201cIf finished actions contain a\u00a0form of returning, is it a\u00a0return to the soil?\u201d The conversations were recorded, edited and compiled, and the audio was then translated into English and Tibetan.<\/p>\n Xin began studying Tibetan language in August\u00a02021\u00a0following a\u00a0discovery about their family history. Throughout his lifetime,the artist\u2019s father, Shen Daohong, made Chinese ink paintings of Tibetan and Indian figures, a\u00a0practice Xin was critical of as their father had no formal relationship to either culture. Following his passing in\u00a02018, the artist\u2019s family explored their ancestry with genetic testing, a\u00a0theme examined in their work\u00a0Provocation of the Nightingale\u00a0(2017\u2009\u2013\u20092018). As a\u00a0result, they discovered that their father was part-Tibetan and Indian, a\u00a0connection that he did not know while living. This new information gave the artist a\u00a0window to reflect on their judgment of his practice, space to imagine that he was subconsciously seeking a\u00a0kinship which he could not articulate. This awakened a\u00a0desire for Xin to connect with their father through studying the ecological values of Tibetan language, and grounds their commitment to relate to places as land, though they might also be named as countries.<\/p>\n The exhibition\u2019s title encompasses a\u00a0witnessing of time passing and what happens in that transformation, a\u00a0marking of seasonal space. In Tibetan, when referring to the color of earth, the word for\u00a0\u200b\u201cgreen\u201d is the same as the word for the color blue. Blue is partly composed of the word \u0f66\u0f94\u0f7c\u0f53\u0f0b meaning\u00a0\u200b\u201cbefore,\u201d alluding to what came prior and what has been: the sky and the\u00a0earth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The exhibition is accompanied by the\u00a0publication\u00a01,2,3,4, published by\u00a0KUNSTVEREIN\u00a0GARTENHAUS\u2019 imprint Wild\u00a0Seeds.<\/p>\n This exhibition is made possible by Stadt Wien and the BMK\u00d6S. The work was originally commissioned by Swiss Institute New York, USA where it was exhibited between May and August 2022.<\/p>\n Shen Xin wishes to thank Zhang Hanlu and Times Museum Guangdong, The Sister Dennis Frandrup Artists in Residence Program Minnesota, the Swiss Institute, New York\u00a0and MadeIn Gallery.<\/p>\n All images are courtesy of the artist and\u00a0KUNSTVEREIN\u00a0GARTENHAUS, Vienna.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":7709,"template":"","tags":[74],"exhibitions_type":[8],"class_list":["post-7706","exhibitions","type-exhibitions","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chenshen","exhibitions_type-museum-exhibitions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.madeingallery.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibitions\/7706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.madeingallery.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibitions"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.madeingallery.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exhibitions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.madeingallery.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.madeingallery.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.madeingallery.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7706"},{"taxonomy":"exhibitions_type","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.madeingallery.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibitions_type?post=7706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}