Mixed Media Projrct
综合媒介项目

Keywords: 

Photography, Video, Installtion, Archive, Fiber Based Material



Episodes(Click to Locate):

Overture: No Palm in Chusan

Episode I: Define a Chusan Palm

Episode II: The Chusan Wandering

Episode III: Flow & Rewrite

Episode IV: In the Name of Botany

In 1849, Scottish plant hunter Robert Fortune (1812–1880) wandered along the coastlines of the Far East. On a Chinese island with a climate resembling that of the British Isles, he discovered a hardy palm species and smuggled six seedlings back to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Over the next half-century, Western botanists conducted comprehensive studies on this palm species. To honor Fortune's discovery, they named it after the island, "Chusan." The successful transplantation of the Chusan Palm led to its widespread cultivation across Europe and North America for nearly 200 years. However, in China, almost no record of this English common name can be found.

A Delusional Context of the Chusan Palm originates from the artist's discovery of a palm species referred to as the Chusan Palm while searching online for "Chusan," the name used by Westerners prior to the 20th century to refer to Zhoushan Archipelago, which is also the artist’s hometown. The Zhoushan Archipelago is not the stereotypical tropical environment suited for palm trees, and in the artist’s lived experience, no palms have ever existed in their hometown. The unfamiliar and counterintuitive naming of the plant sparked a series of visual explorations and investigations. Beginning with a questioning of the Chusan Palm’s local authenticity, the work delves into extensive 19th- and 20th-century Western botanical archives. Through the process of deconstructing the knowledge produced by the West, the artist reexamines this native plant and its identity through multiple perspectives, interweaving photography, video, archive and installations to construct a conceptual guide to the Chusan Palm. 


1849年，苏格兰裔植物猎人罗伯特·福琼（Robert Fortune, 1812-1880）正漫游于远东的海岸线。在一座与不列颠群岛具有相似气候特质的中国岛屿上，他发现了一种在欧洲极为罕见的耐寒棕榈，意识到这种异域风情的植物具备引种到英国的可能性之后，他将六棵幼苗走私到了英国皇家植物园——邱园。此后的半个世纪，西方对这一物种开展了大量的植物学研究。同时，为了纪念福琼在那座中国岛屿的发现，他们将这种植物俗称为“楚山棕榈（Chusan Palm）”。楚山棕榈的引种大获成功，时至今日，它仍然是欧美地区最为流行的棕榈科植物之一；然而在中国，或是各类中文植物学档案中，却几乎找不到关于楚山棕榈这一俗名的任何记载。 

《楚山没有棕榈》源自创作者检索家乡舟山（Zhoushan）在西方的曾用名楚山（Chusan）时偶然发现的一种俗名为Chusan Palm的棕榈科植物，这一陌生且反直觉的植物品种触发了他一系列的视觉实践与研究。作品以创作者对楚山棕榈其在地真实性的质疑作为出发点，围绕着19-20世纪大量关于楚山棕榈的西方植物学档案展开，对楚山当地长期的野外调查与文献收集，创作者将尘封的档案与当下的实践相结合，试图再现这种被西方熟知却在本土失语的原生植物，探究其原境并重写一部关于楚山棕榈的指南法则。