第三章：流动与重写
In 1849, Robert Fortune smuggled six seedlings of the Chusan Palm to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Over the following century, the species became the subject of sustained botanical research in the West. Within this extended historical trajectory, the scientific naming of the Chusan Palm was repeatedly defined and redefined. Four different scientific names emerged across various botanical texts, intersecting and overlapping, resulting for a long period in a state of confusion: the Chusan Palm simultaneously possessed multiple scientific names, which were frequently conflated and misapplied by botanists.
Episode III: Flow & Rewrite traces the evolution of the Chusan Palm within Western systems of knowledge production through the botanists associated with its naming and their respective writings. At the same time, the artist processes palm sheath fibers collected locally in Zhoushan—boiling, softening, grinding, and remaking them into handmade paper. Upon this material, palm images photographed in Zhoushan are printed using the cyanotype process.
As a 19th-century, camera-less method of botanical study, cyanotype images gradually emerge through sunlight and chemical reactions, metaphorically echoing the way botanical knowledge is produced—through observation, classification, and documentation. When these images are printed onto paper made from palm sheath fibers and placed within vintage drawer cabinets, historical documents, low-fidelity images, and their containers together construct a fictionalized micro-field.
The juxtaposition of authentic archival materials with seemingly aged images and substrates mirrors how cyanotype fixes the form of plants onto paper; likewise, imperial botany sought to incorporate the natural resources of the East into Western systems of knowledge through naming and classification. Yet, when this technique is applied to local materials, it begins to unsettle the unidirectional flow of power and knowledge, revealing an undercurrent beneath the authority that Western botany has attempted to establish.
1849年，罗伯特·福琼（Robert Fortune）将六棵楚山棕榈幼苗走私回英国邱园，自此之后的一个世纪，西方对该物种开展了深入的植物学研究。楚山棕榈的学名在绵长的历史脉络中被不断定义与改写，四个学名在各类植物学文献中不断涌现并互相交错，使得很长一段时间内，呈现出了一种错乱的景象：楚山棕榈同时拥有多个学名，并被植物学研究者们长期混用、误用。 《第三章：流动与重写》以与楚山棕榈命名相关的植物学家和他们的相关文献为线索，展示了楚山棕榈在西方的知识生产体系下是如何不断流动与演变的；同时，创作者将楚山当地的棕榈叶鞘纤维煮沸、软化、研磨并抄制为手工纸，并在上面以蓝晒工艺印制了楚山当地拍摄的棕榈照片，蓝晒作为19世纪无相机植物学研究的方法体系，通过阳光和化学反应逐步显现，隐喻了植物学研究中通过观察、分类和记录来逐步揭示自然奥秘的过程。而当这些影像被印制在棕榈叶鞘纤维制成的纸张上并装载入老式抽屉柜中时，历史文献、低质量图像与容器构成了一个虚构的小型场域：真实的历史文献和看似老旧的照片与载体的并置，正如蓝晒技术将植物的形态固定在纸张上，帝国主义的植物学也试图通过命名与分类将东方的自然资源纳入西方的知识体系。然而，当这种工艺被用于本土材料时，它质疑了权力与知识的单向流动，象征着西方植物学试图树立的知识权威下的暗流。
Installation View (On Wall Version)