This week, I had the privilege of hearing from Yun-Fei Ji in two very different contexts. First, my Global Warming class visited with him to hear about the Three Gorges Dam. His painting of the Dam was relevant to us because of our focus on renewable energy and the role of the government in the environment. The next day, our Lit class visited him to have an interesting discussion about his art, scrolls, culture, and inspiration. I really enjoyed hearing Yun-Fei speak about his work in terms of the environment/society and then in terms of artistic choices. He’s clearly a super thoughtful, smart person whose art means a lot to him. He did a lot of research, including traveling to China when he heard about the Dam project. After learning about the impact this dam would have on the communities living nearby, he wanted to create a painting that made a critical statement about the government. I think he’s made others making risky statements about the government, like the long horizontal scroll we saw depicting the peach trees. You could especially sense his desire to create art with meaning that exposed the truth when one classmate asked him, “Did you expect your artwork to be so controversial?” And he replied, “That’s very flattering!”
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I completely agree! I thought it was awesome when he was flattered by his art being controversial! Often I find that I struggle to find the larger picture or statement behind a lot of art pieces, but I particularly liked Yun-Fei’s work for its explicit commentary on society. I think it is so cool that your Global Warming class met with Yun-Fei and it is great to hear that he did so much research for his works. I wish I had been in your Global Warming class to view his works in a different light… I bet what he had to say then was really interesting!