Shaanxi’s Women Artists
Published with Roots Studio, January 2019
When Rebecca Hui, the CEO and Founder of Roots Studio, called and asked if I wanted to join her trip to China’s dry and frozen northern Shaanxi province in winter, it sounded like a wonderful reprieve from Sichuan’s grey wetness. Even more, the trip’s focus was fascinating: embedding with a group of local women artists living in yáodòng cave dwellings who were creating traditional papercuts and paintings inspired by the animals and cycles of Shaanxi nature.
I went, and froze, but only outside. Inside the yáodòngs the atmosphere was graciously warm: the result of efficient heating systems being buried under tens of feet of earth, steaming dumplings, and excellent, even sometimes boisterous, northern Chinese company. The days were filled with paper scraps falling to the floor and sifting through decades of the women's work; the nights with village cave karaoke and sharing a heated kàng bed with the kindly couple that let me share their home.
While most of my work has taken me to the summits, my time in Shaanxi showed me a completely different side of life attached to nature: the sustainability and sense of living underground and the influence of the seasons and locality on our art and imaginations.
