BRAVE NEW WORLD
2021
Solo exhibition
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
Overview
BRAVE NEW WORLD is a solo exhibition developed from the artist’s experience of moving between rural Shanxi, a coal-mining settlement, and Beijing. The project examines how industrialisation, resource extraction, urbanisation, and environmental change have transformed the places connected to his family history.
Taking water extraction as a recurring thread, the exhibition brings together virtual environments, digital prints, moving image, models, and spatial research to consider the relationship between rural life, industrial production, and competing ideas of progress.
Foreword
This body of work, Brave New World, was created around the environments in which I grew up.
As someone who grew up in the city, when I look back at the environments in which my father’s generation grew up and their pursuit of an ideal modern life, I feel a profound sense of difference and dislocation. The development and transformation of society as a whole have created enormous differences between different places. From Quan’ergou Village, the hometown of the Hei family, to the mining area where I grew up, and then to Beijing today, I feel like a traveller moving constantly through different times and spaces. At one moment I am in a cave dwelling in the countryside; at another, I am standing beneath a mountain of coal; and in the next instant I find myself amid the prosperity of Beijing. These sharply contrasting environments give me a strong sense of dislocation, and I try to understand what connects them. It was from the perspective of environment that I began this body of work.
In this series of works, I use the water pump as a symbol of industrialisation. Pumping water is an indispensable part of coal mining. During the mining process, groundwater needs to be pumped out in order to make extraction possible. The water pump therefore becomes a medium connecting resources and production.
Coal mining is directly related to the hydrological ecology of the surrounding rural areas. The village originally had streams and springs, which is why it was named Quan’ergou. However, as coal production in the surrounding area increased and urbanisation accelerated, the water in the village gradually disappeared. Over time, there was no longer enough water to sustain life in the village, and even farming became difficult. Younger residents also followed recruitment into the coal mines and went to work there. My father was one of them. They made the most glorious contribution to the construction of this Brave New World, making the cities increasingly prosperous.
Sometimes I wonder:Which piece of coal lit the lamp in front of me?
I keep asking:What is a Brave New World?
17 October 2021
Hei Qiang
Hei Qiang
Field Research
The exhibition developed from research into Quan’ergou Village, Shanxi, where changes in water availability, coal mining, and industrial development had gradually transformed both the landscape and patterns of everyday life.
Digital Print Series
A series of digital prints extracted relationships from the reconstructed village landscape—water and life, agriculture and industry, production and consumption, and the changing identities of villagers across generations.
When humans depart, other forms of life seem to remain unaffected.
From farming to factory work, from villagers to citizens, the people of my hometown underwent a transformation in identity. The water pumps in distant factories drew underground water from the village, taking the people of my hometown away from this old world.
Coal mining requires extensive extraction of underground water. We must constantly produce resources to sustain the comforts of modern life. Yet, these comforts always come at a cost, where gain and loss are inextricably intertwined.
Since the 1950s, the rivers in the village have gradually diminished, and the pebbles that once lined the riverbanks have become scarce. The memories of the village differ greatly across generations.
Relying on nature or relying on humans?
Living in Utopia
The work presents modern life as a repeating cycle of education, work, family, and reproduction, questioning how an ideal life is defined and continuously reproduced.
Water Migration
XR / Virtual Production Experiment, 2021
Water Migration uses the water pump as a link between natural resources and industrial production. Developed as an early experiment with Unreal Engine, XR, and virtual production, the work brings reconstructed elements of Quan’ergou Village together with industrial objects that would not ordinarily occupy the same physical space.
Exhibition Archive