Little Grass
小草，单视频通道，彩色，有声，15分23秒，2024
Little Grass, Single channel video, color, sound, 15:23，2024
城市的边缘地区不断被开发为新的楼盘，地貌因此发生变化，原有的植被和耕地逐渐被商业住宅的人工园林所取代。而在新建小区中，温暖明亮的现代家居所使用的绿植，如多肉属的仙人掌，代表着位于中心的植物。然而，这背后隐藏着一段植物的殖民历史——远离本土的热带沙漠植物被运送至城市中心，成为对异域幻想的象征……
在城市更新与士绅化过程中被迫迁离原居地的居民，会在旧房拆除、土地尚未开发的短暂空档期，返回原址种植蔬菜，以延续他们原有的生活节奏与身体记忆。在这一情境中，“种菜”并非公开的抗议行为，却构成了一种对空间再分配的柔性回应。我通过影像将这一日常实践转化为对权力结构、空间政治与个体生命力之间关系的视觉思考。
完整视频请联系shuchutian7@gmail.com
Urban fringe areas are continuously developed into new residential complexes, transforming the landscape as existing vegetation and farmland are gradually replaced by artificial gardens designed for commercial housing. Within these newly built communities, the warm and brightly lit interiors of modern homes are often decorated with ornamental plants—such as succulents and cacti—which come to represent vegetation positioned at the center. Yet behind this lies a concealed history of botanical colonization: tropical desert plants, displaced from their native environments, are transported into urban centers as symbols of exotic fantasy.
Meanwhile, in the process of urban renewal and gentrification, residents who are forced to leave their original homes return, during the brief interval between demolition and redevelopment, to the cleared sites of their former dwellings to grow vegetables. Through this act, they sustain the rhythms of daily life and embodied memory shaped by their previous environments. In this context, cultivation does not function as an overt form of protest, but rather as a mode of soft response to the redistribution of space. Through moving-image practice, I translate this everyday gesture into a visual inquiry into the relationships between power structures, spatial politics, and individual vitality.
For the full video, please contact: shuchutian7@gmail.com
舒楚天 