饥荒草图几则A few sketches of famine（2023）
蔡家坡在秦岭山脚下，紧依涝河，村民居住集中又分散，沿着长长的山脊和公路居住。居住在村里的多为孩子和老人，老人们多出生于四五十年代，他们共同经历过无可选择的公社化运动，以及随后的“三年自然灾害时期”。在他们的讲述中，年轻时的饥饿是一种创伤，伤口里夹杂着野菜、玉米、红薯或榆树皮。在今天，老农民们已经无法下咽这些食物，它们在记忆中过于苦涩了。

Caijiapo Village is located at the foot of the Qinling Mountains, close to the Luohe River, the villagers live concentrated and scattered along long ridges and roads. Living in the village are mostly children and the elderly, most of whom were born in the 40s and 50s, who lived through the inevitable communalization movement and the subsequent "three-year period of natural disasters." In their telling, the hunger of youth is a kind of trauma, wounds mixed with wild vegetables, corn, sweet potatoes or elm bark. Today, the old farmers can no longer swallow these foods, they are too bitter in memory.




       

村里老人们的回忆音频（已经过受访者许可）

Audio of memories of old people in the village (with the permission of the interviewee)


走入历史的现场，陈嘉宁意识到“饥饿”这一情感和创伤与具体的食物之间隐秘的联系。面对随之而来的冲击和反思，他尝试以不同的方式回应。

Walking into the scene of history, Chen Jianing realized the secret connection between the emotion and trauma of "hunger" and specific food. Faced with the shock and reflection that followed, he tried to respond in different ways.



“向前看呀！莫回头！”在面对这场集体记忆的瞬间，老人们往往下意识地回避或沉默。这是年轻时苦难突兀刺来时的真实反应。我尝试将这一情感融入到居民肖像的拍摄中，在今天寻找记忆的面貌。

"Look ahead! Don't look back!" In the face of this collective memory moment, the old people often subconsciously avoid or silence. This is a true reaction to the sudden pain of youth. I try to incorporate this emotion into the portraits of residents, looking for the face of memory today.

将老人们回忆时的停顿、叹气或长久的沉默合成为一段音频。这一音频和咀嚼野菜的影像相结合。口腔的苦涩连接起咀嚼和回忆的相似之处。

Synthesize an audio recording of pauses, sighs, or long silences as the elderly reminisce. The audio was combined with a video of munching on wild vegetables. The bitterness of the mouth connects the similarities between chewing and remembering.


“我尝试以自身的记忆去回应这一问题。”在陈嘉宁的童年时期，饥饿和奶奶的砂锅粥(一种水米相融的食物）里的贫穷与爱连接在一起，它温暖却肚困。他将在村子里复原砂锅粥，并收集老人们有关饥饿记忆的食物共同熬制，与村民们共同品尝味蕾里传递的情感记忆。

"I try to answer this question with my own memory." In Chen's childhood, hunger was linked to poverty and love in his grandmother's casserole porridge, a mixture of rice and water, which was warm but sleepy. He will restore the casserole porridge in the village, and collect the food related to the memory of hunger of the old people and cook it together, and taste the emotional memory transmitted by the taste buds with the villagers.