He Yunchang
He Yunchang
Caochangdi—The Tenth Generation.
2012
C-print on Dibond, 250×59.5 cm, 89.5×59.5 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Over the years since his first performance in 1993, He Yunchang’s practice has naturally changed and transformed, along with his sensitivities. Caochangdi—The Tenth Generation can to some degree be considered a transitional piece toward the gentler approach that can be discerned in He’s more recent works. In an interview in 2015, the artist mentioned that “this transition also relates to my age, my experience, and the condition of my body,” something we can see through analyzing the grammar of his movements. In his nearly three decades of artistic practice, we rarely see He lying down (and then only where he is on an operating table waiting to be cut). Yet in early spring 2012 he lay down for 28 days to watch the grass grow in front of his studio. Although the self-imposed harsh conditions of sleeping outdoors on a hard surface do involve a certain violence (as usual, oriented toward himself), another dimension opens up in which nature can be simply observed and contemplated whilst steadily and quietly changing.
From the pictures of the performance we can see that there was a more “solemn” public moment marking the beginning of the artist’s cohabitation with the as yet invisible seeds planted in the soil around him. At times engaged in interactions with artist friends and visitors to Caochangdi, an artists’ village in the north-east of Beijing, he is nevertheless literally “grounded” at all times, as if careful not to miss anything in the attentive act of grass-watching.
SK