Scorching Sun

This print captures a moment in the rural lives of a group of ethnic Dai women in southern Yunnan province, a region renowned for tea cultivation. Heading up to a tea plantation, the five carry with them various implements, woven baskets, triangle and square sieves, and bamboo strips. The women have wrapped their heads with cloth. The contrast between shadows and bright areas in their exposed skin indicates the peak sunlight of midday. The viewer is drawn to a depiction of distinct individuals whose informal attire and energetic body language show them to be a collaborative team. The details of the setting, with wildflowers lined up along the sloping hills, two cows parallel and opposite to the women, and horizontal rivers far in the distance, create an everyday world that is complex and multidimensional.

Zhang Xiaochun is one of the few artists from southern China who practices the waste-block method. The technique involves creating multicolor prints with only one woodblock, whose surface becomes useless and unprintable once the artwork is complete. Zhang employed the reduction block process to build gradient hues of brown, yellow, red, white, ochre, and black, capturing some of the effects of the light and heat typical of the women’s home province.