The Wait

© 2009, Ji Yunfei

The Wait

Currently not on view

The Wait,

2009

Ji Yunfei 季雲飛, born 1963; born Beijing, China; active New York, NY
Chinese
Modern period, 1912–present
2010-80

The Wait depicts some of the 1.5 million people displaced from the Chinese provinces of Hubei and Sichuan by the building in 1994 of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River. Seen as a milestone of Chinese construction, the resultant reservoir provides a power source and allows massive oceangoing freighters to pass, thus promoting the economic prosperity of the country’s interior. Many residents, however, were forcibly displaced from the homes that their families had lived in for generations. Yunfei integrates the honored traditions of painting, calligraphy, and writing in this work to focus attention on the cultural rupture as well as the heavy social and environmental costs of industrial progress.

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More About This Object

Migration and Material Alchemy

Information

Title
The Wait
Dates

2009

Maker
Ji Yunfei 季雲飛
Medium
Handscroll; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
57.1 x 90.2 cm. (22 1/2 x 35 1/2 in.) frame: 65.1 × 98.3 × 3.5 cm (25 5/8 × 38 11/16 × 1 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
2010-80
Place Made

Asia, China

Inscription
Calligraphy: The taming of the waters by Yu the Great [note: a possibly mythical culture-hero renowned for ending serious flooding by channeling rivers rather than trying to dam them] took place in the remote past, but every year, flooding is still a danger along the Yangzi River. The populations on both sides of the river have been severely harmed by it. Early in the previous century, Sun Yat Sen put forth the idea of building a dam at the Three Gorges to interrupt the flow of the river. Several decades later, Chairman Mao Zedong also promoted this suggestion. Work on the reservoir finally commenced in 1994, and will be completed next year. The reservoir has a depth of 175 m., a perimeter of 500 km., and it spans the two provinces of Hubei and Sichuan. Oceangoing freighters of up to 10,000 tons will be able to sail directly to Chongqing. The reservoir will promote the economic prosperity of the interior and solve the problem of power generation for a vast area. It has become a milestone of Chinese construction and a symbol of progress and modernization. 1.5 million people were displaced from the area of the reservoir. With their own hands, they tore down and moved 13 cities, 140 townships and 1,300 villages, brick by brick, tile by tile. They had no choice but to leave the homes which their ancestors had lived in for generations. Neighbors and friends were scattered to different places.
Culture
Chinese
Period
modern Chinese styles and periods
Type
scroll paintings, handscrolls
Materials
paper (fiber product), ink
Subject
women, calligraphy (writing), baskets, figures (representations), sheep, plants, oxen, trees, men, travel

2009–2010 Ji Yunfei, born 1963, sold at James Cohan Gallery (New York, NY), 2010.

2010 James Cohan Gallery (New York, NY), sold to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2010.

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