Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art

October 2, 2008 – January 25, 2009

Installation view of Chen Qiulin's Rhapsody on Farewell (2002), River, River (2005), Color Lines (2006), and Garden (2007).

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River in China is a massive project entwined in controversy.

When finally completed, it will stand as the world’s largest generator of hydro-electric power, with a yearly output equal to that of fifty million tons of coal or fifteen nuclear power plants. However, the dam’s 375-mile reservoir has already displaced over one million people and submerged over one thousand towns and villages.

This exhibition presents work that four leading contemporary Chinese artists—Chen Qiulin, Yun-Fei Ji, Liu Xiaodong, and Zhuang Hui—have created in response to the Three Gorges Dam.

Despite differences in backgrounds and artistic practices, these artists have engaged with the theme of displacement, responding to the movement of people, the demolition of old towns and construction of new cities, and the astonishing changes the project is bringing to the local landscape.

The powerful works on view represent four major branches of contemporary Chinese art: ink painting, realist oil painting, conceptual photography, and performance and new media art. Moving beyond any single medium or trend, Displacement offers nuanced, thought-provoking perspectives on a project of great social, environmental, and global concern.