UPCOMING: Yelang Writes Back
Artists: Yiqing Chen, Shuni Liang, Chongyan Liu, Qile Sun, Funa Ye, Guo Yu, Ran Zhou
Curator: Jiawen Li
Producer: Dan Hong, Ran Zhou
Exhibition Coordinator: Yunshan Jiang
Exhibition Assistant: Yunjie Peng
Poster Designer: Zijie Wu
Exhibition Dates: 06/28/2025-08/16/2025
Opening：06/28/2025 Sat 15:30-16:00 Curator guided tour & 17:00-18:00 Artist talk
Location：Baopu FELT art space, Building No.11, Kaili, Guizhou, China
Statement
Guizhou is located in southwestern China, characterized by mountainous terrain and diverse landscapes. Historically, when transportation was underdeveloped, numerous historical records described Guizhou as a region of "barren mountains and treacherous rivers." In the imperial edict Ci Pu Gui Chi, Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty labeled Guizhou as "remote and desolate," emphasizing its distance from the central imperial heartland. This geographical positioning long relegated Guizhou to a marginalized status within traditional historical narratives centered around China's central plains. Expressions such as "the arrogance of Yelang" and "the donkey of Guizhou has exhausted its tricks" further entrenched Guizhou as a peripheral symbol within the central imperial perspective.
Was Yelang truly arrogant? This ancient state, dominant in southwestern China from the Warring States period through the Qin and Han Dynasties, at its peak controlled not only today's entire Guizhou region but also extended into southern Sichuan, northeastern Yunnan, parts of Guangxi, and Hunan. Yet in mainstream historical narratives, the story of Yelang has consistently appeared as a subordinate, peripheral role, with its own narrative submerged beneath dominant discourses. Just as the stereotype of Guizhou as a land of "barren mountains and treacherous rivers" persisted for centuries, the region's internal richness and diversity remained overlooked. This narrative gap, lingering within the historical imagination of Yelang, highlights how local experiences have been obscured and simplified within grand historical narratives.
This exhibition, titled "Yelang Writes Back," aims to challenge and disrupt this marginalized narrative tradition, constructing a new narrative centered on Guizhou itself. Featuring works by seven artists, the exhibition includes various media such as painting, textiles, installation, video, and photography, complemented by textile artifacts to present a rich tapestry of local knowledge and experiences.
"Yelang Writes Back" unfolds around one core narrative—focusing on contemporary experiences occurring in Guizhou—and extends into two secondary narratives: Guizhou's historical past, and its connections with surrounding regions. Liang Shuni’s two paintings, Thief's Stepping Stone and Miracle Surviving in the Crack, open the exhibition, setting its tone. Born in southwestern Guizhou, Liang employs vivid imagination and childhood memories, transforming local landscapes into theatrical painting spaces, allowing imagination to flourish between reality and spirituality. Her delightful and romantic compositions reflect a deep sensitivity towards the local terrain, shaped by her upbringing surrounded by nature.
Similarly, artist Liu Chongyan, who also grew up in Guizhou, approaches her work with nuanced sensitivity. Her video piece Conversations with Friends captures intimate dialogues between three women. In one particular scene, two close female friends converse fluently in the Guiyang language, naturally evoking a deeply rooted emotional intimacy, suggesting they share a lifelong bond. Their exchanges highlight the unique tone and emotional flow characteristic of the local dialect.
Artist Chen Yiqing, who grew up in Guizhou and studied elsewhere, returns to examine structural changes amid rapid technological development in Guizhou. His video work Data Brothers, Sun Lamp and Ethnic Minorities behind Landscape explores the complex entanglement between technological industries and the local ethnic landscape. From spectacular energy infrastructure to the relationship between ethnic groups and technology, his work illustrates the new landscapes emerging in a rapidly modernizing Guizhou.
Finally, artist Zhou Ran adopts a more detached observational perspective toward the current conditions in Qiandongnan. In her installation Vacant Niche, she removes the halo from a Buddha statue's original structure and places it in an empty shrine without a central deity, symbolizing the complex reality of blended local beliefs. In another installation, Nangx Eb Jit Bil (Migrating Up Rivers to the West), she employs found objects from various regions based on her own experience of migration to Kaili, constructing a multi-layered narrative about migration. She does not attempt to intervene as a "local," but rather as a wanderer, integrating into the broader, diverse local context.
Beyond focusing on contemporary events in Guizhou, the exhibition also explores the Guizhou’s historical past. Liang Shuni’s additional three pieces, Strange Death and the “Turned to Stone” series, begin with narratives of Guizhou’s ancient oceans, incorporating poetic imagination and creating a mysterious, narrative-rich cave space. Fossilized marine life and shells within these karst caves subtly evoke the long geological history and memories accumulated in Guizhou.
Sun Qile, on the other hand, directs attention to blank billboards along the Kaili expressway. These billboards embody absence and silence, which Sun further investigates by working closely with local communities. Through a "nomination" approach, she invites residents to rename these blank billboards, uncovering overlooked community memories. Using fabric and stones collected from residents, she creates tangible matrices of community memory, turning "silence" and "absence" into visible and tangible forms.
The exhibition’s third narrative examines relationships between Guizhou and its neighboring regions. The concept of "Yelang culture" refers not only to the ancient Yelang civilization that existed over two millennia ago but broadly signifies the unique regional culture formed through prolonged interaction and integration between different ethnic groups and surrounding cultures in Yelang’s historical territories. Artist Yu Guo’s video piece Watershed retraces the ancient route from Chongqing to Guizhou, carefully examining and documenting the geography, architecture, and landscapes along the route, constructing overlapping layers of geography and memory.
Artist Ye Funa, also from southwestern China, demonstrates non-hierarchical collaboration among women in her embroidery work Tree of Life, merging folk aesthetics and mythological narratives into a visual system that integrates everyday perceptions and spiritual symbolism. The exhibition additionally features textiles known as "embroidery sampler," provided by Folk Experimental Lab & Transformation (FELT). In traditional contexts, weaving and embroidery were commonly viewed as women's labor, representing a unique feminine form of expression. The distinct weaving language found in "embroidery sampler" forms a dialogue with Ye Funa's embroidery, enriching the exhibition’s multi-layered exploration of female expression in Southwest China.
Through these three clues, "Yelang Writes Back" reactivates the symbolic meaning of "Yelang," serving as a metaphorical entry point into understanding Guizhou’s subjectivity and opening pathways for rewriting contemporary Guizhou experiences. Those previously obscured local experiences now emerge as new cultural forces, becoming critical reference points for reconsidering the dialectical relationships between locality and globalization, as well as history and contemporaneity.
逆写夜郎
参展艺术家：陈益青 梁姝妮 刘重燕 孙其乐 叶甫纳 余果 周然
策展人：李嘉文
出品人：洪旦 周然
展览统筹：姜蕴珊
展览助理：彭云杰
海报设计：伍子杰
展览时间：04/04/2025-04/05/2025
开幕式：06/28/2025 周六 15:30-16:00 策展人导览 & 17:00-18:00 开幕对谈
地点：抱朴FELT跨界民艺实验室，贵州凯里市老卫校11号楼
展言
贵州地处中国西南腹地，层峦叠嶂、地貌丰富。在交通尚不发达的时代，不少历史记载将贵州描绘为“穷山恶水”。《赐普贵敕》中，宋太祖便以“远在要荒”形容贵州，意指其远离中央王朝腹地。这种地理空间格局，注定了贵州在以中原为中心的传统历史叙事中长期处于边缘地位。"夜郎自大""黔驴技穷"等意象，恰是将贵州固化为中原王朝视野中的边陲符号的明证。
夜郎当真自大？这个战国至秦汉时期雄踞西南的政权，在其鼎盛时期，势力范围不仅覆盖今贵州全境，还延伸至川南、滇东北、广西、湖南的部分地区。然而在历史长卷中，夜郎国的叙事却始终作为从属的配角存在，其自身的主体叙事湮没于主流话语之外。正如黔地"穷山恶水"的污名化叙事绵延千年，却鲜少有人认识到其内部的资源多样性——这一叙事缝隙，残留于夜郎国的历史想象中，也映照出地方经验在宏大叙事中被遮蔽与简化的历史轨迹。
本次展览以“逆写夜郎”为题，从贵州出发，试图打破其被附属化的边缘叙事传统，构建一个以贵州为主体的叙事结构。展览呈现七位艺术家的作品，涵盖架上绘画、纺织、装置、影像、摄影等多种媒介，并结合纺织品藏品，从贵州出发，呈现丰富的本土知识经验。
“逆写夜郎”围绕一条核心脉络展开——聚焦于贵州当下正在发生的现实经验，并由此延展出两条支线：贵州的过去，以及它与周边地区之间的关联。梁姝妮的两件架上绘画作品《偷盗者的垫脚石》与《奇迹在夹缝中夹生》，作为开启展览的首章，为整个叙事奠定了基调。梁姝妮生于黔西南，在作品中她调动童年记忆与想象，将黔西南乡土地貌转化为一个剧场化的绘画空间，使想象在现实与灵性之间游移生长。画面中惬意又浪漫的视觉构成来源于她被自然包围的成长经验，也体现出她对本土地貌语言的深度感知。
同样成长于贵州的艺术家刘重燕则以更为细腻的方式处理作品。她的影像作品《聊天记录》捕捉三位女性之间几段亲密对话。其中一幕中，两位亲密的女性朋友用流利的贵阳方言交谈，私密的情感在贵阳话语境中被自然地唤出，暗示她们可能有着从小一起成长的深厚关系。她们的交流中有本地语言所特有的语调，情感在语言的缝隙间自然而然地流动着。
艺术家陈益青同样自小生活于贵州，随后到外地求学。此次他以“游客”与“本地人”交错的视角回望家乡，关注贵州在科技基础建设高速推进背景下所呈现的结构性变迁。他的影像作品《数据兄弟，太阳灯与景观背后的少数民族》探讨了科技产业链与当地民族图景之间的纠缠关系。从能源基础设施的视觉奇观，到族群与科技之间的关系，他描绘了在科技高速发展下的贵州新景观。
最后，艺术家周然以一个更为抽离的观察视角，介入对黔东南地区当下状态的思考。在装置作品《空龛》中，她将一枚佛像背光从其原本的附属结构中抽离，置入一个无主神的“空神龛”，以此回应当地信仰揉杂混合的现实状况。而在另一件作品《溯河西迁》中，她从自身移居至凯里的经验出发，利用来自不同地区的现成物件，构建一个关于迁徙的复合叙事。她并未试图以“在地”的身份介入，而是以漂泊者的姿态进入当地语境，成为其中更具多元性的一部分。
除了聚焦贵州此时此刻正在发生的事情之外，展览的另一条叙事脉络则探向贵州的过去。梁姝妮的另外三件作品《奇异之死》与“化为石”系列——以贵州远古海洋的叙事为出发点，融入了艺术家诗意的虚构与想象。在这些作品中，她构建了一个神秘而富有叙事感的溶洞空间，喀斯特洞穴里仿佛显现出古海洋生物的遗骸和早已石化的贝壳，暗示着贵州悠长地质演化过程所沉积的时间与记忆。
艺术家孙其乐则将关注点放在凯里高速公路沿线的空白广告牌上。这些空白承载着“缺席”与“沉默”，孙其乐进一步挖掘这种缺席背后的记忆与叙述，以深入社区的方式展开工作，邀请当地居民参与空白广告牌的“提名”，让被忽略的社区记忆在空白广告牌的重新命名中浮现。通过将社区提供的织物与石头组成记忆矩阵，她与社区居民共创，让“沉默”与“缺席”转化为一种有形的记忆现场。
展览的第三条脉络围绕贵州与周边地区之间的关系展开。“夜郎文化”这一概念不仅指两千多年前的古夜郎文明，更泛指在夜郎故地上，各民族与周边文化历经长期互动、融合所孕育出的独特地域文化。在此脉络下，艺术家余果的影像作品《分水岭》呈现了他重走渝黔古道的行走经历。沿着这条从重庆通往贵州的路径，他对沿途的地理、建筑与景观进行了细致的梳理，通过影像叙事构建一个地理与记忆的复合叠层。
同样生长于西南地区的艺术家叶甫纳，在刺绣作品《生命之树》中呈现出一种女性之间非等级制的合作实践。她邀请家中的女性亲戚和一位熟识的彝族女性合作刺绣，并在布面上融合民间美学与神话叙事，形成一种连接日常感知与精神象征的图像体系。本次展览中也将展出抱朴·FELT提供的藏品——施洞苗族“母花本”。在传统语境中，纺织与刺绣往往被视作属于女性的劳动，同时也是一种女性特有的表达方式。母花本所呈现出的女性独特的编织语言与叶甫纳的作品形成了互文对照，也进一步丰富了展览关于西南女性创作语言的多层次叙述。
本次展览沿着上述三条脉络，重新激活“夜郎”的象征意涵，使之成为理解贵州主体性的隐喻入口，并由此开启对当代贵州经验的再书写。那些曾被遮蔽的在地经验，正在转化为新的文化主体力量，成为理解贵州主体性的出发点。这些多样的声音与实践，不仅提供了理解贵州主体性的重要参照，更成为重新思考地方性与全球化、历史性与当代性之间辩证关系的起点。