Researching into the history of cane sugar, the artist was curious if she could excavate a path that this material traveled across countries and landscapes by looking at the way names of sugar were being translated. In this research, she found a scroll roll that its front side contained a holy Buddhist script and on the back, a list of instructions to make cane sugar. The scroll carried by Indian monks introduced the process to Chinese artisans, who then refined this process and carried it back to India. The recipe also recorded an unfamiliar name of cane sugar in Chinese, which is a direct translation from Sanskrit. This discovery inspired famous Chinese scholar and linguist Ji Xianlin to research the history of cane sugar and its significance in cultural communication.
To the artist, the combination of holy text and sugar recipe carried through time and space symbolizes communication and intimacy. It is sacred not only because of the religious text, but also the land, the people, the history, and the material.
This scroll was taken at the end of imperial China to Germany, and is now only known as its archival name P3303.
The collection of work evolved from a poem to a performance and finally, an installation.
P3303 is a cluster of nouns [performance]
2018
Duration: 8 minutes
This performance was created after the poem P3303 is a cluster of Nouns. Pieces of fresh sugar cane were used for extracting juice by the artist, and then boiled from a body of liquid to a solid. Afterward, a video was taken and projected in the performing space to establish an immersive environment, depicting how cane sugar transforms from its solid state to a liquid state, while the precipitates create a landscape far away. The artist, situated in front of the video, becomes part of the landscape and slowly reads the poem to the audience. Some solid sugar particles break apart, some move up and down, some dissolve and diffuse in the water, telling a story alongside P3303 and the names of [sugar].
In the installation, P3303 is a cluster of Nouns; Yiyi Wei removes her own presence from the piece. The poem is printed on vellum as part of the reading stand, inviting viewers to step into the landscape. The translucency of the vellum captures glimpses of the falling sugar, creating the foreground. The participants occupy the in-between space, and the video projection extends to the faraway. Every reader brings a different history, memory, and language to the piece, thus completing the installation.
P3303 is a cluster of Nouns [an installation]
2019