A Conversation with Xinan Ran
In June, visiting artist Xinan Ran and collaborator Sarah Lammer spent two laborious and boisterous weeks transforming Stone Quarry’s grounds into language. They realized a new iteration of Ran’s ongoing text-based work SoilSandSelfie. Combining "clay loam" topsoil, lime, and water, shoveling the mixture into molds, and tamping, they made 3D words that scribe the land. The artists constructed three phrases on the grounds, each letter measuring around 4 by 7 feet. Artistic Director Sayward Schoonmaker and Xinan Ran sat down together to talk about the origin of SoilSandSelfie and how text plays into her work.
Sayward: How did your work SoilSandSelfie begin?
Xinan: The first iteration of this project was during the pandemic when I was in China for a year. I got the opportunity to do a project that was a parking lot takeover in an urban space near Tongji University’s Urban Design department. I wanted to find a way for kids to play with dirt in the city because, besides urban gardening, soil and the city are distant from each other. People assume and relate soil to germs and bacteria. I think this was particularly in people's minds during the pandemic, when everybody was wearing masks and washing their hands. Getting dirty seemed a very unnatural thing to do.
I called the project Sandbox For All. I created a sandbox the size of the parking space and filled it with different gardening soil. Soils of different colors and textures were used for the text--so some of them were paler, some were red, some were darker, and some were sand.
I pre-cut some Chinese character stencils and then invited passersby to create letters with the stencils and soils. It was an interesting experience because parents really wanted their kids to make something and take photos of it, and it distracted them from the thought of their kids touching dirty soil. The kids were having a different kind of fun than their parents.
Xinan Ran, Sandbox For All, 2020
Sayward: Did the parents want to take photos while their kids were playing or when the phrases the kids made were complete?
Xinan: The parents wanted a photo of the completed phrase. It was funny because a lot of the kids that played didn’t yet know how to write, or were just learning, so it was the parents who wanted them to make certain phrases. The kids were ok with that because they thought, “It’s fine. I get to play with this dirt.”
Sayward: The parents decided on what words were made.
Xinan: Yes, usually. We started with dark, nutrient rich soil, and after a phrase was made, we would rake it away so the colored soil got mixed with the darker gardening soil and disappear. So, after five days of making and erasing text, the text got lighter and lighter. This was the beginning of SoilSandSelfie.
When I got the stencils made for Sandbox for All, I realized that it was a tool that you can carry and use anywhere. I wanted to keep making stenciled text with soil when I returned to the States. I hired someone to take drone images and videos of Sandbox for All. But knowing the restrictions on drone use in public space in New York City, I didn’t want to buy a drone for that purpose. So, I found the very tall selfie stick on Taobao, which is like Chinese Amazon, brought it back with me, and started making text in New York.
Sayward: How would you decide when you were going to make a work while you walked around the city?
Xinan: At first, I tried using the letter stencils with water on pavement, so that the text appeared slightly darker on dry pavement. But the water dries up too quickly. I started using loose soil because I could leave it, and depending on the conditions and weather, sometimes the text would disappear quickly.
I started to use mulch from the parks, and I would bring a sieve with me because I realized that a certain particle size was good for the stencils. I’d go in the morning, find a spot close to mulch and make a text. I decided text on site. I didn’t pre-plan the text, so it depended on where I was and what the ground situation was like. I carried two sets of stencils of different fonts: one of them is more ornate and the other is sans serif and bold. If I wanted to do something more intimate and delicate, I'd use the gentler font.
I used SoilSandSelfie as an excuse to make work outside when the pandemic was still going on. I went to Prospect Park, Central Park, Washington Square Park, and the Waterfront Greenway on the west side. I made text near my house and on my mentor’s rooftop while cat sitting. I made a text, “I worry a lot but sleep like a baby” and I put it right in front of the local high school at 2:00 am because I knew workers would be going to work at 5:30 am. I hoped some of them would see it.
Xinan Ran, SoilSandSelfie: "I worry a lot but sleep like a baby"
I did about a dozen texts around the city before I got a residency at LMCC Art Center on Governors Island in 2022. I made another dozen texts during that time—and they all started from one phrase. I set up a web page and invited friends to come to the island with me, and I would give a walking tour of the island because there were a lot of new art resources that people didn't know about. We would chat and I’d ask them to tell me a story of endurance and give me their mantra that got them through difficult times. Then they got to pick a phrase from my collection of texts, we would make it in soil, and take a group selfie using the selfie stick.
After we took the photo, I added their photo and text to a graph that eventually became a tree with multiple branches. For example, I'd start with four phrases and the visitor would choose one phrase, make it in soil, leave the phrase, and the next visitor would choose from the four phrases. Depending on what they chose, the phrase gets linked to a different branch. In the end, we had about 25 phrases from 14 to 15 visitors. You could see how this person chose this person's mantra and left this phrase which inspired the next person to choose this phrase and so on.
At that time, I really wanted to create communication that is not of the time: communication with a lag through the internet or a lag through the same space at different times. When a visitor finished a text with me, we took a selfie with our faces, but also a photo with only the text. I'd send the originator of that text a postcard with only the text, but I'd also send to the next person a selfie of us and the text and the previous person will, in a few weeks, receive a postcard with only their phrase. I kept a log of every visit, about 200 words each. Things like: Where did I make it? What was the weather? It brought together friends from different areas of my life.
Sayward: What stands out to you about certain phrases or words you hear that makes you want to collect them?
Xinan: I've been collecting text from overheard conversations, YouTube comments, Amazon reviews, podcast soundbites and text messages. I did a series in 2019 called Falgush. I would lint roll my sheets and rugs every day and then use a label maker to stick a text on the lint roller sheet. It was 2 forms of collecting. Falgush is a Persian word that means ‘fortune hearing.’ It’s kind of an obsolete word. It’s not widely practiced, but Falgush is called fortune hearing because people would “listen to the conversations of the passersby and interpreting that which is heard as a sign.” (From Wiki entry “Fal-gush”)
I find that my collection of phrases really fit this idea. Once you can read text out of context, you can give it a new meaning through things like lint sheets or having the text in a different field. From the virtual space to the physical space or the other way around, placing text out of context gives the readers opportunity for a double-take, to think about why this text is interesting in that new setting.
Sayward: The soil stenciled letters of SoilSandSelfie are relatively small. Have you always wanted to make text much bigger than the scale you’ve been working in?
Xinan: Yes. I think the size of the text was appropriate for the selfie stick I got, which was 15 feet. When I was buying that one, the 10-meter stick (32 feet) was too heavy and only telescopes down to 6 feet, so it's too long for me to carry. Now the updated version is both lightweight and short— which is why I got this new long one.
Xinan with her 30-foot selfie stick on Stone Quarry's grounds.
I’ve had an idea of making the text in a more permanent form. When I was making texts with loose soil they disappear after three or four hours from the wind. It's hard to make them thicker, because if you make them taller, they lose their detail, get blurry and disappear. I talked to my friend Hannah who suggested, “You should make the letters 3D and jump out of the 2D surface.” I had been interested in rammed earth for a while because it’s a common building material and method in many different cultures. I started to prepare applications and make plans. Then Stone Quarry reached out to me, asking for an outdoor project, and it was the perfect thing.
Doing this project on a large scale requires space, a lot of dedicated time, and a location with flexibility. I don't prepare phrases ahead of time. I go on-site, and I have the flexibility to do whatever I want, which requires a lot of early planning in creating that flexibility. I think that this opportunity really allows that to happen.
Sayward: You did a tremendous amount of early planning, and ultimately, you designed and made molds out of insulation foam and plywood that could be assembled to make multiple letters. You did all that work before you came to Stone Quarry’s grounds! Then, you and your collaborator spent 2 weeks assiduously working on the grounds to make letters out of rammed earth.
Xinan: Yes, making molds that can make multiple letters came out of working the early plastic stencils. I used to carry with me a set of capital letters, a set of lowercases letters, and sometimes I’d bring both font sets. Sometimes, I needed to use the stencils creatively. I noticed that the ‘b’ and ‘p’ are essentially the same and thought I should just use one for both!
Xinan and collaborator Sarah Lammer adjusting and clamping the mold.
Sayward: Upon arriving at the park, what did you notice and how did you decide on what phrases you would make in this landscape?
Xinan: I think we (me and my collaborator for this project, Sarah Lammer) first noticed all the birds. They wake you up in the morning and they're everywhere. There are so many kinds. I also noticed the fields and the forests. I had a desire to allow different layers of viewing. From taking a photo from the ground, then from the selfie stick, and then from a drone or satellite image, determined the locations of the phrases. More realistically the locations are based on how sloped the landscape is. Sarah and I looked at different places and noticed the land. When we sited the phrase “worrying and wondering” it was supposed to be one long line, but in doing so, the text looked very short. So, we decided to move the words out of line to occupy more space on the land.
Sayward: Where does the phrase “worrying and wondering” come from?
Xinan: It is from my collection of phrases. I think that it’s suitable for people’s mindset right now. We all keep doing what we’re doing, but at the same time knowing this is not the way forward, but we’re still doing it. There is a very vivid image in that of aimlessly doing things. Also, I was thinking about a maintained park with space for animals, but also everything is still controlled and planned for the people that come to see the park.
Currently on view at Stone Quarry: Xinan Ran's SoilSandSelfie: worrying and wondering. This selfie was taken just after the last letter of the phrase was assembled and tamped.
Sayward: How does speaking English as a second language influence or change the use of text in your work?
Xinan: I approach English in a very rational manner, which is very different from learning a language that is your mother tongue. So instead of learning from habit or repetition, I learned English through systematic introduction at different levels since I was 6. I learned logical thinking through English, and I think traditional Chinese writing does not emphasize 'logic' as much. There are phonetic structures in poems, but we do not have a long history of scientific writing, such as in journals or papers.
I find a lot of joy in taking things out of context and repeating words and phrases. Sometimes when I repeat them to other people, they get to reevaluate that phrase and gain a new appreciation. They find that experience very enjoyable. My work is about texture, color, and material. Having text is another component to create different levels of reading, either at different distances or at different speeds. I also see text as an entry point for people to engage with the work by beginning with language they know.
Xinan Ran, SoilSandSelfie: "See you in a couple years when the algorithm unites us once again"
View SoilSandSelfie on the grounds until weather wears them away! Find the three phrases are located on the Hilltop and the Hillside.
Xinan Ran, SoilSandSelfie: wingwoman, 2024, rammed earth. Currently on view on the grounds.
About the Artist:
Xinan is a recipient of a 2024 NYSCA Individual Artist Grant.
Xinan Helen Ran (b. 1994. Inner Mongolia, China) is an artist who specializes in fabric, language, and found objects to construct emotional landscapes. She searches for the point where trauma, nihilism, and humor converge. Xinan has exhibited nationally and internationally at Inna Art Space (Hangzhou), Hauser & Wirth (New York), and collaborated on public projects with Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology (Cambridge, MA), Clover Nature (Shanghai), Acompi (New York) and Beam Center (New York). Xinan was a 2023 mentee in New York Foundation for the Arts’ Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Center resident (2022), and an Ox-Bow Summer Fellow (2016). Xinan is also an art educator, an art administrator, and a set designer for new theaters. www.xinanran.work