Routine Maintenance SHU DA ZHAO FENG Big Tree Catches the Wind

Lashihai, Yunnan Province, China l 2009

Collaboration Lijiang Studio

Trees apple orchard pruned

ROUTINE MAINTENANCE amplifies everyday acts of caring for plants into visually compelling landscapes that will perpetuate these practices in the face of cultural globalization. It is also hoped that the performance of making the landscape more visible will assist in the preservation of local culture. Landscapes are routinely maintained in order to cultivate more productive soils, forests, plantations, orchards,and field crops. The practice of maintenance requires knowledge that is locally derived - and often passed through generations.

SHU DA ZHAO FENG was a site specific “poem in the landscape” from Lashihai in Yunnan Province where Ron Henderson was Artist-in-Residence in November 2008. The project was a collaboration of the neighboring farmers and fellow artists-in-residence where the village orchard trees were pruned, their trunks painted with a sulfuric insecticide. and then the circular poem, SHU DA ZHAO FENG, or big trees catch the wind, was painted on the trunks of the apple trees. The poem equates trees with human character; those who stand tall are exposed to harsh winds.