Hu Jihong academic exhibition opens in Guizhou

The City of the Unyielding: Hu Jihong's Artistic Practice, an academic exhibition is underway in Guizhou. [Photo provided to eguizhou.gov.cn]

The City of the Unyielding: Hu Jihong's Artistic Practice, an academic exhibition, has opened at the Art Museum of Guizhou University's College of Fine Arts, where it will remain on view until July 5.

Centered on the theme "The City of the Unyielding", the exhibition brings together nearly 60 works created by artist Hu Jihong since 2019. Spanning oil painting, acrylic, watercolor, handmade earth paper, indigo clay, and installations, the exhibition explores how Tunpu culture can be reinterpreted through contemporary artistic practice, revealing the enduring relationship between people, place, history, and lived experiences.

The City of the Unyielding: Hu Jihong's Artistic Practice, an academic exhibition is underway in Guizhou. [Photo provided to eguizhou.gov.cn]

Tunpu culture traces its origins to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), when military settlers from central and eastern China established fortified communities in what is now Guizhou province. Preserving ancient dialects, architecture, costumes, rituals, and everyday customs for more than six centuries, Tunpu remains one of China's most distinctive examples of living cultural heritage and has become the enduring source of Hu's artistic inspiration.

For years, Hu has devoted himself to artistic explorations centered on Tunpu, creating more than 800 works inspired by the region. He describes his relationship with Tunpu as a "fivefold entanglement" – a bond with the land, cultural lineage, the body, inner disposition, and time itself. Guided by the principles of rootedness, presence, and cultivated simplicity, he has spent years working in Tunpu villages while incorporating indigenous materials such as indigo clay, handmade earth paper, and reclaimed wooden doors into his artistic practice. Rather than reproducing tradition, his work seeks to reveal the enduring vitality embedded within it.

At the exhibition's opening, Hu delivered a lecture titled "My Quantum Entanglement with Tunpu: Persistence and Resistance in Artistic Creation". Drawing on perspectives from tourism studies, history, cultural geography, ethnology, and anthropology, he introduced five interpretive frameworks for understanding Tunpu culture, examining its historical continuity, cultural identity, and civilizational significance.

Hu (L1) describes his relationship with Tunpu as a bond with the land, cultural lineage, the body, inner disposition and time itself at the exhibition. [Photo provided to eguizhou.gov.cn]

According to Hu, Tunpu is not a relic frozen in history but a living cultural tradition. Sustained through everyday language, architecture, rituals, and community life for more than six centuries, it remains a vivid testament to the resilience of Chinese civilization and the country's long tradition of cultural diversity and integration.

Reflecting on his artistic practice, Hu explained that the three major series featured in the exhibition grew from what he calls an intersubjective dialogue with Tunpu. Through an approach of being rooted in place, fully present, and intentionally unpolished, he hopes his work will not only document a cultural landscape but also invite viewers to rediscover the deeper connections among land, history, and human experience.

Curator Xu Wei, in her keynote lecture "The Value of the Guardian", described Hu as "a guardian of the age". In an era shaped by rapid technological change and accelerating social transformation, she argued that true artistic value does not necessarily lie in constant innovation but in the quiet determination to safeguard what should never be lost. For Xu, Hu's sustained engagement with Tunpu is not an act of nostalgia, but a contemporary response to the question of how humanistic values can endure.

Art critic Jia Fangzhou, the exhibition's academic director, noted that the apparent roughness of Hu's paintings should not be mistaken for technical inadequacy. Instead, it reflects an artistic language grounded in lived experience, where authenticity outweighs refinement and sincerity becomes a source of aesthetic strength.

Hu said the exhibition and its accompanying academic discussions had further clarified his artistic position: "To stand as a guardian, and to remain with Tunpu." As he put it, "Technology keeps moving forward, while art must continue looking inward." For him, the purpose of art is not to chase novelty, but to preserve those human values capable of withstanding the passage of time.

The exhibition is accompanied by a series of lectures, academic dialogues, and panel discussions addressing topics including the value of art in the age of artificial intelligence, the contemporary relevance of regional cultural heritage, and new possibilities for artistic practice.

As the exhibition preface observes, "An age needs not only those who push forward, but also a city for those who remain steadfast." Rather than looking nostalgically toward the past, "The City of the Unyielding" invites audiences to reconsider how cultural memory continues to shape the present. Through Hu Jihong's artistic practice, Tunpu is presented not simply as a historical legacy but as a living cultural tradition whose enduring spirit continues to inspire contemporary reflection.