ABSTRACT
In the video work Farewell Poem (2002), Chen Qiulin (b. 1975) presents herself engulfed within the landscape of detritus created by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. Throughout the work, the artist incrementally transforms into the tragic figure of Consort Yu, the partner of the Western Chu King, who commits suicide when penned in by Han forces. Chen’s deliberate self-positioning throughout the video encourages us to examine the relationship between large state-funded public projects, the precarity of those within lower socioeconomic classes, gendered vulnerability, and environmental waste. Placing Chen’s work into conversation with Jia Zhangke’s film Still Life (2006), I argue that Chen’s historical reference and role-playing combined with strategies against nostalgia specifically work to make hypervisible those within vulnerable populations who were displaced. Using Chen’s past interviews and my own interview with the artist, as well as close visual analysis and art historical context, I argue that Farewell Poem not only highlights material waste within the shattered environments, but also urges a return to an understanding of the world on a human scale—rather than a scale reflecting global macroeconomic systems—for us to fully grasp the acute vulnerability of women and those within lower socioeconomic classes.
