From the summer of 2017 to the fall of 2018, I visited Yulin Zizhou area where I executed works of art.

The natural environment I chose from this region for my work is closely related to its cultural context. Usually, when I visit a place, I look for materials and objects I am interested in, so I could express myself freely, instead of being confined by any artistic medium.

The livelihood for people in Shanbei relies on Heaven. This phrase conveys the uniqueness of its geological and ecological environment, as well as its rich and vivid customs. Here, the arable land is found on the hills, where the sunflowers bloom at the top. Modern agriculture is difficult for this area. The residents in this area are quite special, many of them live in the grottoes, whose lifestyle has fully integrated with nature. Over the course of its development, the impact from the changing time is apparent. Many of the grottoes are now abandoned since that way of living would no longer meet the demands of modern life. Agriculture makes up for the economic structure at Liangjiagou Village at Zizhou County of Yulin City, its hills are filled with crops. There is little rain in the area, so its annual harvest is entirely a gift of nature. Probably for this reason, it is where the phrase “Livelihood relies on the Heaven” first came from. On a land like this, the area of people’s activities, population density, and the distribution of the lands have reached a fine balance.

On my first visit to the valley, I discovered various objects that looked like cobblestones. Initially, I thought they were stones, but upon a closer examination, I realized those are hard earth chunks. I asked the locals how these came to be. They told me these came down the mountain from landslides. Walking into the valley, one finds a few areas of flat land. I gathered many clay stubs of various shapes, all of which are very rigid. I have the sense that these clays pieces are related to the local customs. So, I found a clean hill and dug out similar shapes on the earth based on the pieces I have gathered, and then inserted what I have found back into them.

On the mountain, I’ve also found ditches washed out by the water that shaped into various forking paths. Cotton soil on the Loess Plateaus are different from clay. A small amount of water would wash them away. Among these geological variations, I selected my personal favorites and installed lights into them to illuminate the uneven textures that were washed off from the water. I've replicated a few plaster models, which converted the negative forms into positive, to preserve the traces that have been left behind. I think these sculptures are engendered from nature, where the earth washed away by the water will run into the Yellow River, hence their shapes are like that of the Yellow River.