{
"data": {
"id": 170518,
"accession_number": "2012.99.2",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Last Days of Village Wen (\u6587\u6751\u8a18\u4e8b\u4e0b\u5377), 2011. Yun-Fei Ji (Chinese, b. 1963). Handscroll, ink and color on Xuan paper; overall: 37 x 942.2 cm (14 9/16 x 370 15/16 in.); painting only: 34.6 x 610.8 cm (13 5/8 x 240 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 2012.99.2",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Last Days of Village Wen",
"title_in_original_language": "\u6587\u6751\u8a18\u4e8b\u4e0b\u5377",
"creation_date": "2011",
"creation_date_earliest": 2011,
"creation_date_latest": 2011,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"Asian (from 1900 to present)"
],
"culture": [
"China"
],
"technique": "Handscroll, ink and color on Xuan paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Chinese Art",
"collection": "ASIAN - Handscroll",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Overall: 37 x 942.2 cm (14 9/16 x 370 15/16 in.); Painting only: 34.6 x 610.8 cm (13 5/8 x 240 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.37,
"height_inch": 14,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 9.422,
"width_inch": 370,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.9375
},
"painting only": {
"height": 0.346,
"height_inch": 13,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 6.108,
"width_inch": 240,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "\u8f9b\u536f\u5e74\u5b63\u96f2\u98db",
"inscription_translation": "colophon signed Ji Yun-Fei, dated 2011",
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "VILLAGE WEN IN JUNE. \nReaching June, it had not rained for eight months at Village Wen. The river had long dried out; crops were not growing. On the 13th, it finally rained. Raindrops the size of green mung beans hit the camphor trees by the road, making a sound like popping sesame seeds.\nWIND. \nThe villagers of Wen had already demolished their homes and moved into temporary tents they made for themselves. They had packed their furniture and belongings\u2014all laid out on the empty grain-drying grounds. At midnight there was a sudden gust of wind that blew all the things into the air, including chairs, tables, wardrobe, large and small bags. Gradually they fell, but not a single item was damaged.\nEVEN GHOSTS ARE SCARED. \nAccording to the village elders, there were so many hungry ghosts after the Great Leap Forward that one could easily hear their cries on the quiet side streets during daytime. Many villagers were too afraid to go out. Some suggested that since everyone was afraid of the party secretary [of the village], calling out his name would make the ghosts be quiet. It really worked.\nFISH FARMING. \nAt Village Wen, the few who did not want to look for jobs in cities decided to raise fish besides growing crops. But the great drought of the xinmao year [2011] had dried up the riverbed in the upper course, forcing the villagers to move their net boxes tens of li downstream. The river flowed again and water rose rapidly after the June downpour. [No one anticipated that] all the fish that had been raised for three years suddenly died overnight.\nOFFICIAL. \nThe party secretary [of the village] came down with a fever. He slept all day only to wake up in a cold sweat, complaining that he was tired. He reported that the provincial head [his boss] had been promoted to be a powerful official in the underworld, commanding him to be in charge of demolition and resettlement. Even if encountering dingzihu [difficult households in opposition to the project], he must use force. Many poor ghosts in the underworld bothered him every day, arguing about law.\nWONDER. \nSome thirty li south of the village, as the water rises in summer, over the vast expanse of mists and ripples in the river would a miraculous wonder of well-lit, tall buildings be seen.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": "In the colophon following the painting, Ji has included a literary composition to provide the context of the story. With his usual dark sense of humor, Ji Yun-Fei turns it into a tragic comedy.",
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 203084,
"title": "Ji Yun-Fei: Last Days of Village Wen",
"description": "Ji Yun-Fei: Last Days of Village Wen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-July 31, 2016).",
"opening_date": "2016-02-12T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "A Terrible Beauty is Born. The 11th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (September 15-December 31, 2011).",
"opening_date": "2011-09-15T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Yun-fei Ji: Water Work. Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (June 2-July 15, 2012).",
"opening_date": "2012-06-02T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Collection of the Artist, New York, NY",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2011\u20132012",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2012",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2012\u2013",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Last Days of Village Wen is the story of a fictional place that in some ways appears like the setting of a retreat borrowed from classical Chinese painting.",
"description": "Ji Yun-Fei's handscroll was prompted by contemporary events and experiences, but he uses traditional Chinese painting motifs and imaginary and even grotesque imagery to explore the themes of migration and environmental change.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60481027"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cai, Bingqiao [\u8521\u79c9\u6a4b = Paula Tsai], editor. Ji Yunfei: shui li gong cheng [\u5b63\u96f2\u98db: \u6c34\u5229\u5de5\u7a0b = Yun-fei Ji: water work]. Hong Kong; Beijing: UCCA Books, 2012.",
"page_number": "pp. 134\u2013154",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Mann, C. Griffith. \u201cAcquisitions 2012.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 53, no. 2 (March/April 2013): 10\u201325.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 10\u201311,16",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2013-02/page/n9/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Chung, Anita. \"Re-emergence: New Chinese Galleries and Art Acquisitions of The Cleveland Museum of Art.\" Orientations vol 44 no. 8 (November/December 2013): 64\u201375.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 74\u201375, fig. 10",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Chung, Anita. \"Last Days of Village Wen: Tensions and contradictions abound in the work of contemporary artist Ji Yun-Fei.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 1 (January/February 2016): 9\u201311.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 9, 10\u201311; Mentioned: p. 9, 10",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2016-01"
},
{
"citation": "\"Exhibitions.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 4 (July/August 2016): 4.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 4",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2016-04"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2012.99.2",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 170518,
"creators": [
{
"id": 52976,
"description": "Yun-Fei Ji (Chinese, b. 1963)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": "\u5b63\u4e91\u98de",
"birth_year": "1963",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2012-12-03T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 2011,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "2011",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "component",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": "2012.99",
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:53:21.341000"
}
}