Ding Yi: The Winding Path

Chinese/English

2023

28.5 × 20 cm

342 Pages

Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing House

1SBN 978-7-5586-3231-0

Chief Editor: Cui Cancan

Graphic Design: Lynn Lai

This catalogue was published in conjunction with Ding Yi's 2025 solo exhibition The Winding Path, jointly organized by Contemporary Gallery Kunming and Anthropology Museum of Yunnan University. Nie Rongqing, Zhang Haichao, Cui Cancan, and Greg Hilty contributed to this catalogue. In 2024, Ding Yi traveled three times to the ancient Naxi region of Yunnan. He was deeply drawn to the animism and nature worship of this ancient civilization, its notion of life returning to ancestral lands, the mysterious Twenty-Eight Mansions, and the grand pictorial scroll The Road to Heaven, which describes the soul's journey. Ding Yi decided to make Naxi and Dongba culture the central direction of his new works. New works inspired by The Road to Heaven, the Twenty-Eight Mansions, the traditional Dongba paper, and the Hengduan Mountains are included in the catalogue. The section "The Recurring Journey" offers a retrospective glimpse into Ding Yi's work from 1987 to the present, hoping to present the 38-year-long winding road of the "cross" symbol. The Winding Path is Ding Yi's path back to the origins of abstract spirit; it is also his search for inspiration–toward the highlands, the peaks, the ancient, and the natural. Just like the Naxi people, thousands of years ago, who followed the guidance of the North Star from the distant north, arriving here and formulating their own calendar and script along the way. "Journeying" and "winding upward" have become Ding Yi's most important working methods in recent years, and they mark a significant turning point in the evolution of his "cross" symbol. Unlike site-specific art that often assumes a top-down stance, the "winding path" is a path that seeks revelation, tempers the soul, and reconstructs the subject.

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