CHINA/ SIBERIA (Buryatia)
Nature
Huan Shan (Anhui, China)
Huan Shan
Anhui province, China
2008
Standart Def: 720p
Reel Duration: 19’03”
Inspired by these artworks, this footage in standard definition manages to capture many unique features of the Huangshan mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China.
It was filmed in the spring, in early morning when the clouds are the most abundant.
Related Reels
Categories
Chinese artists on Nature
Shen Shaomin. Bonsais
Bonsais by Shen Shaomin
Beijing
2008
Standart def: 720p.
Reel duration: 6′ 30″
Cui Fei. Thorns
Thorns by Cui Fei
New York
2009
HD 1080p
Reel duration: 6′ 31″
Zhong Hongtu. Shan Shui
Shan Shui by Zhong Hongtu
New York
2009
HD 1080p
Reel duration: 5′ 22″
Shan shui—mountain water painting—is a subset of ink painting that emerged during the Liu Song dynasty in the fifth century, and was subsequently reinterpreted over several centuries of Daoist art.
The genre epitomizes the unity of, and mutual joy between, nature and humanity, and it sets the stage for artists addressing the degradation of nature in distinctive ways, while maintaining a deep connection with traditional landscape painting.
Contemporary artists (here featured) such as Beijing based Shen Shaomin with his “Bonsais” and New York based Zhong Hongtu with his large colorful canvases create real life works of art and expanded paintings that incorporate shan shui’s pictorial strategies to bring attention to the environmental destruction caused, in part, by hyper development.
The New York based artist Cui Fei brings a more personal touch with her thorns about War and History (the second Sino- Japanese war (1937–1945).
For more on Chinese artists:
https://patrickmorell.com/works/art/#china
and the documentary CHINA ARTS, Here and There, Now and Then (2008- 2009)
https://patrickmorell.com/films/#chinaarts
Buryatia (Siberia, Russia)
Reel Duration:3′ 39″
Buryatia is a mountainous Russian republic in eastern Siberia.
Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been a part of the Russian Far East since 2018.
This is an excerpt of “Lake Baikal, Sacred Sea of Siberia”: a series of 2 documentaries shot in 1997 around Lake Baikal which addresses the impacts of a Pulp and Paper plant built by the Soviets during the Cold war, on the southern bank of the lake from an environmental and sociological point of view.
This excerpt illustrates the deep attachment of the Buryats people to their natural environment (from the yurts to the shamanic totems) through educational programs established by the Buryats themselves.
For more on the Buryats, go to:
https://patrickmorell.com/works/people/siberians/
The series was shot on Sony PAL SD 3 chips camera around the Lake and in Mongolia for about 8 weeks in the summer and fall 1997.