Land as Cure
By Song Chen

“All of the creatures originate from the earth and will eventually turn to it.” This sentence arouses our infinite respect for earth. Today, our life is reconstructing the land underfoot at an alarming speed; the voiceless soil, mother of all lives, witnesses the changes in silence; how brave the “land” is no matter how positive or negative energy we bring…56At present, the way we treat soil determines the way we are treated by soil; since the ancient time, the human civilization is relying on the fertile and abundant soil. Take a glimpse at the old day when people used soil without restraint, and we might fail to imagine what we are today. The civilizations nurtured by the land take place by turn. It is hoped that our respect for land can benefit our offsprings.

Art is not the entertainment of ears or eyes but the redemption of our souls. The breaths of all creatures can be sensed above the land. It is hoped we could embrace our life as brave as the land, get rid of the curse brought by the nature of enjoying pleasure in good time and be subservient to the land beneath our feet.

Today, the exhibition plan has been implemented after six year’s preparation. The exhibition will be opened on December 5th, the World Soil Day in 2019. In the early days of production, I visited many places to seek the samples of “wounded soil” for my work Wounded Soil. Then I produced the collected wounded soil samples into the large soil art work—“soil baby”. During the collection, we photograghed the “wounded soil” and made a documentary in the end which was played in a continuous loop inside the exhibition hall of the Wouded Soil.

The key soil installation work is Wounded Soil, which is produced to celebrate the day—World Soil Day. The soil harmed and polluted by humankind’s materialism, like a dying child, urgently needs our care and healing. At the beginning of life, the womb of soil—Wounded Soil—presents a huge cracked land at the bottom of the “soil baby”, signifying the wounded soil—dying womb…

The polluted soil ecology brings the pollution of human body, as well as heart and mind . In fact, our pain is interconnected; a weak land is actually human being’s shared pain and weakness.

The humbleness of the earth,

The trampling of man,

The land is crying with,

The tears of the soil,

The land is cracking. So,

How can we get refreshed again?…

The land is awakening. It lets us awaken to the damage of materialism to the soil ecology on Earth and human’s common weakness, as well as the limited consciousness of ourselves; by using a series soil art work, we can link the heaven with the land and experience the love of soil with justice…We aspire for recovering people’s original mind by connecting with the land in an artistic fashion, so as to arouse the love deep inside our hearts.

What can we leave for our offspring in future? The exhibition calls for more people to pay attention to soil ecology and also to care about “soil” from inner emotion and feeling. As we can notice, the work of the Wounded Soil will be showcased on the World Soil Day in documentary. It makes an appeal for the awakening of the soil justice in hope of our embracing and caring of the land and also our awareness of “supporting land”. How can we protect the soil which is home to lives? Let’s experience life and death by traversing the land of destiny. We may rethink about the heaven and land. Let’s become the motherly energy of land to feel the warmness of land and take “care for land” as the payback.

About the exhibition

Curator: Du Xiyun

Opening: 2019.12.05（World Soil Day）

Supported by: Green Living Magazine

Consultants: Ren Guanping, Deputy Chairman of Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences

Zhou Yongfeng, Soil Expert

Courtesy of the Artist and True Color Museum.