Naxi composer and electronics improvisor shares video project exploring the invisible wounds of a mountain village near her southwest China hometown of Lijiang
“The peculiarity about this village is its outer walls that have been shaped by mountains and rivers,” says Guangzhou based multidisciplinary artist Chunyang Yao, describing Baoshan Stone village, as captured in her new video work Invisible Wounds. The village is located in Jinsha River Valley, 110 kilometres north of Yao's hometown of Lijiang in Yunnan Province, China. “Looking at it from a high angle shot, it is strongly twisted and stationed under the harsh conditions of nature,” she continues. “We human beings are like this: we exist, observe, struggle, twist, waive and cure in a complex social environment. Each individual has polished and ground out his own wounds and scars from the painful wash and erosion. They are invisible and unspeakable.”
From her base in Guangzhou, Yao is the music director of a multidisciplinary arts festival led by modern dance, and this influences her own electronics and movement based work. “Because I have more experience working with dancers, I have always believed that voice and body are inseparable,” she told Josh Feola in The Wire 448. Another recent work, Her/e, combined these practices into an hour long performance exploring her Naxi identity – one of China's 55 ethnic minorities.
Read more about Yao's research into the relationship between Naxi culture and contemporary music inside The Wire 448. Subscribers can access the interview via the digital archive.
