Yun-Fei Ji Yun-Fei-ji
The Three Gorges Dam, 2009
3410-BK
13 3/4 x 120 3/8 in. (35 x 306 cm)
Woodblock print, hand printed with traditional Chinese watercolor inks from 500 hand carved blocks of pear wood, on mulberry paper and silk, in silk bound case. Yun-Fei Ji's Three Gorges Dam Migration, the seventh in the series of artists' books inaugurated in 2002 by the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art, is a hand scroll, the traditional "book" form of old China. This ten-foot-long horizontal image, hand-printed in China from over 500 hand-carved woodblocks, depicts the flooding and social upheaval caused by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, on the Yangtze River in the central part of the country. A gradually unfolding narrative, Ji's scroll records the sometimes banal, sometimes dramatic effects of social and environmental engineering. The work reflects Ji's ongoing study of the human and environmental loss associated with one of the largest civil-engineering feats of recent times. Completed in 2012, the Three Gorges Dam will be the world's largest hydropower plant, generating enough electricity to serve four cities the size of Los Angeles. Meanwhile its immense reservoir has caused significant ecological change, displaced at least 1,200,000 people; it has submerged thousands of villages, aesthetically resonant landscapes, and valuable archaeological sites.
Price Upon Request