Scripture 经
To whom does the earth belong? What does planetary flourishing look like to precolonial eyes? We return to Shanhaijing 山海经 (The Books of Mountains and Seas), an ancient classic of primitive geography, cosmology and ecology that registers a world where all species are provided with resources for undifferentiated flourishing.
In this cognitive entropy, where all of us are struggling for a path to deeper reasoning, we wonder what it means to be curious in a world stripped of experience. What can we do to reincarnate the primordial text in the present, to ignite the dwindling hope for knowledge reconstruction?
Shanhaijing’s inexhaustible knowledge and absolute plurality offer a mythical space for living in the present. The stories, creatures, and environments gesture toward a cosmology that is correlational. Cross-pollinated species, transmutable beings, androgynous beasts and humans thrive in the infinite space between heaven and earth, where matter and phenomena are in a constant flow of exchange. This kind of imaginative correlation dilutes the contemporary desire for categorization, and destabilizes hierarchical orderings. With roots in Taoist philosophy, Shanhaijing centers the body as an expression of the shape and logic of the cosmos, a way of living and knowing through embodiment. This radical epistemology enables us to think on a terrestrial scale, to form a deep and intimate solidarity with ourselves and our surroundings.
The project is triangulated in three parts: video installation, fiction writing, and live performance. It has been supported by residencies at Shandaken Projects, New York in 2019-2020 and LMCC Arts Center, New York in 2021.
EXHIBITIONS
Liquid Ground 溢流地
August 14 – November 14, 2021, Para Site (Hong Kong)
September 18, 2022 – February 18, 2023, UCCA Dune Art Museum (Qinhuangdao, China)
WRITING AND SOUND
CACTOPIA X FUTURE HOST | SCRIPTURE
Spring 2021, Macalline Art Center, Beijing
This podcast belongs to Future Host’s on-going writing project “Scripture,” a book of speculative fiction inspired by The Book of Mountains and Seas. The fiction unfolds in two directions: Qinyuan, a diminutive bee-bird, sexes and assassinates its way out of the mythological landscape. In another world, the son of a master potter from Jingdezhen wanders in the western world as SHE, with insoluble mud on her hands. Chapters from “Scripture” will be released in English and Chinese concurrently with the podcast.
Fiction writing: Future Host
Chinese translation: Pan He
Podcast Production: Tingying Ma
Podcast Theme Music: Thoom aka Zeynab Marwan
Podcast Assistant: Lauren Wolchik
Podcast Technical Consultant: Zhen Qin
Cover Image: Sam Lubicz
Graphic Design: Matt Tecson
Episode 1: w/Bassem Saad (Toxicity, Entropy and Hope) ft. Nene H
Episode 2: w/Ohyung (Fear, Embodiment and Leaving Behind)
Episode 3: w/Kara Güt (Intimacy, Magic and Modding ) ft. Via-app
Episode 4: w/Eren İleri (Escape, Disembodied Masculinity and Anti-space) ft. 33EMYBW
Episode 5: w/Jessika Khazrik (Poly-cosmology, Trans-millennium Thinking and Healing)
Episode 6: w/Zairong Xiang (Queering, Yingyang Transdualism and Anti-genesis)
English text
中文