The James Cohan Gallery is currently offering an online viewing room of Yun-Fei Ji’s (CRF 2010) epic scroll The Village and Its Ghosts. “The 57-foot-long scroll tells the story of a fictional village that at first glance appears to be a picturesque mountain refuge, like those that populate classical Chinese landscape painting. Upon deeper examination, a more nuanced and contemporary reality is revealed. As we move through the unfolding narrative of the scroll, we encounter a community experiencing monumental social and ecological transformation. Ji traces the history of China’s industrial revolution and rise as a global superpower through the microcosmic lens of life in this imaginary village. The result is an elegiac and at turns supernatural lament for a way of living eradicated by the steady march towards ‘progress.'” This online experience offers historical and social contextualization of the work, analysis of scroll details and images, comparison to parallel works, and reflection from Yun-Fei Ji himself. The viewing room is available through April 1st. Check it out here.
Yun-Fei Ji’s The Village and Its Ghosts: A Closer Look
