Reviewing clay art and building awareness of soil ecology — a Middle School study field trip at the Xinqiao Art Museum

土壤是能够支持植物生长的陆地表面的疏松表层。它是在成土母质、气候、地貌、生物、成土年龄等诸因子综合作用下形成的历史自然体。

近几十年，因人口剧增，造成对土地资源的压力过大，人们乱砍滥伐，过度放牧，耕地用氧失调，引起了水土流失、土地沙化、土壤贫瘠、土壤酸化、土壤污染等土地退化问题。而土地退化，导致生态环境恶化，经济发展速度的下降，影响人类生存环境。

作为初中生的我们，从了解土壤现状，了解生态环境问题，保护人类生存环境出一份力，势在必得。

Soil is the loose, surface layer of land that supports plant growth. It is a naturally occurring component of land formed over a long period of time under the combined effect of various factors such as climate, landforms, and soil age.

In recent decades, the rapid increase in population has caused excessive pressure on land resources. People have caused deforestation, overgrazing, and imbalance in arable land with respect to oxygen – these in turn have caused soil erosion, land desertification, soil pollution and land degradation issues. Land degradation has led to the deterioration of the ecological environment and the decline in the speed of economic development – these in turn affect the living environments of human beings.

As a middle school student, it is inevitable that we make our own contributions after understanding the status quo of the soil, the ecological environment, and the need to protect human being’s living environment.

课堂中，我们通过观察各种土壤实验，了解土壤的性质、特征，以及地区分布，为参观土壤艺术家宋陈老师的《生态纪》做好充分的准备。

带着思考和好奇，初中部的同学们穿过层层工厂大楼来到了上海新桥美术馆《生态纪》。一进门，一座庞然大物矗立在我们的眼前，占据了整个场馆，那是“土壤婴儿”。只见它四周被赤土环绕，浑身有着黄土之色，手脚似母亲肚中的婴儿一般紧紧蜷缩在一起，腹中的系带蜿蜒曲折，绕过背部最终连至大地。土地就像生活，承载着每个人的不断成长。但定睛一看，婴儿面部狰狞，周围的土地也都是风化而成的病态的沙土，仿佛在诉说着人类对土壤的过度侵害......

In class, we observed various soil experiments to understand the nature, characteristics, and regional distribution of the soil, so as to make full preparations for visiting the "Ecological Chronicle" by the soil artist Song Chen.

With thinking and curiosity, our Middle School students walked through the factory buildings to the "Ecological Chronicle" of the Shanghai Xinqiao Art Museum. As soon as we entered, a huge clay art project stood in front of our eyes, occupying the entire room. It was a "soil baby". I saw that it was surrounded by terracotta, with the color of loess, its hands and feet curled up like a baby in a mother's womb, the umbilical cord twisted and twisted around the back and finally connected to the ground. Land is like life, nurturing everyone’s continuous growth. But when I look closely, the baby’s face is hideous, and the surrounding land is comprised of sickly, sandy soil. This project seems to be telling us about humans’ excessive damage to the soil.

同学们在土壤艺术家宋陈老师的讲解中进一步了解土壤艺术作品的制作背景，显微镜下的土壤颗粒把我们和土壤的距离拉近，土壤科普文献展将土壤问题的严峻现状慢慢展现在我们面前，激发了我们当代青少年们对土壤环境的保护意识。

We learned more about the background of the production of soil artworks from an explanation from artist Song Chen. Viewing soil particles under the microscope brought us closer to the soil, and the soil science literature exhibition slowly revealed for us the serious status of soil problems, inspiring our young minds to protect the soil environment.

墙壁上挂着一幅幅由泥土所构成的“土上水墨”，波澜壮阔的山脉，厚实平滑的高原，千沟万壑的悬崖峭壁，烟波浩渺的沙漠......集于一画。凑近一看，那些波澜壮阔变成了凝结堆积的土块；千沟万壑也消失不见，只看到苦干崩裂的土壤；烟波浩渺也变成了风化的沙土......这一幅幅精美的“土上水墨”，表面上光鲜亮丽，背地里却暗流涌动，充斥着人们对土地无尽的侵犯！

On the walls were paintings of ‘ink on the soil’, made of mud, magnificent mountains, thick and smooth plateaus, vast ravines and cliffs, and vast deserts... all in one painting. Looking closer, the magnificent waves had become condensed with accumulated soil; thousands of gullies had disappeared and only the hard-dried and cracked soil could be seen. The vast waves of smoke had also become weathered sand. This particular, exquisite ‘ink on the soil’ work was glamorous on the surface, but the undercurrents, surging from behind, represented our endless infringement on the land!

三楼的阳光房中，是一块块分裂的土片。小小的上百副土片，却仿佛有着无尽的魔力!

时而如厚实的护盾一般坚如磐石；时而如漫天飞雨一般霆霓快雨；时而又如一般众星捧月一般炫丽奇妙。凑近一看却只是一片片脆如纸一般的土片，枯黄消瘦。轻轻一碰，它们发出了浑厚的声音，仿佛是泥土封存了千万年的低吟。

In the sunroom on the third floor, there were fragments of soil. Hundreds of small pieces of soil seem to have endless magic power! Sometimes soil is as solid as a rock, like a thick shield; sometimes it rains down like rain from the sky; sometimes it is as dazzling and wonderful as ordinary stars holding the moon. When I look closer, they were only pieces of soil that were as crisp as paper, withered and thin. With a light touch, they uttered a deep voice, as if they were moaning that had they had been sealed in mud for thousands of years.

泥土艺术

“大地是一个婴儿，需要人保护”我们经历了工业时代，对自然过度开发，才导致了如今的现状。这里的展品给我带来的感受就是四个大字——触目惊心！人类的贪欲已为大地造成了不可磨灭的伤害......是的，水能载舟亦能覆舟，我们可不能让曾经孕育我们的大地母亲，变成灭掉人类的凶手。

人地关系是一个相互作用、相互影响的开放系统，其核心是人类通过生产过程影响土地的各个组成要素，反过来土地系统的变化又影响人类生存环境。

我们倡导采取积极有效的措施保护土地资源，防止土地资源进一步退化和生态环境的进一步恶化，遵循自然规律，采取合理的土地资源开发利用方式，确保可持续发展。

"The earth is a baby and needs human protection." We have gone through the industrial age and over-exploited nature, which has led us to our current state. The exhibits here gave me the feeling that our treatment of land and soil is shocking! Human greed has caused indelible damage to the Earth. Yes, water can both carry a boat as well as overturn it. We can't let Mother Earth, who once gave birth to us, become the murderer of mankind.

The human-land relationship is an open system that is interactive and influences each other. At its core, humans influence various elements of the land through the production process. In turn, the changes in the land system affects the human living environment.

We advocate the adoption of active and effective measures to protect land resources, the prevention of further degradation of land resources and further deterioration of the ecological environment, following the laws of nature, and the adoption of reasonable land resource development and utilization methods to ensure sustainable development.

学生参观感想

“万物源于泥土，并最终将再次化为泥土”我原以为去美术馆只是看泥土罢了，没有什么意思，但当我真正进入到上海新桥美术馆时，身边的一切像回归到了自然的原点。踏入馆门的那一刻，一片硕大的白墙上写着艺术家宋陈的《土地治愈》，不禁引人深思，博物馆里的一切，难道只是艺术吗？事实上，无数种类不同的污染泥土已经告诉我们了一切。随着社会的不断发展，我们的土地环境越来越差，原本生态共存的伟大已经不复存在。正因为这样，老师们才会让我们去观察泥土，了解泥土，真正做到让它不再仅仅是个艺术，而是生态平等，共存的伟大力量！

"Everything comes from mud and will eventually turn into mud again." I thought that going to the art gallery was just about looking at mud. I initially thought that it was meaningless. However, when I actually entered the Shanghai Xinqiao Art Museum, everything around me seemed to cause me to return to nature and our origins. The moment I stepped into the museum, the artist Song Chen’s "Land Healing" was written on a huge white wall, evoking people's thoughts. Is everything in the museum just art? In fact, the countless different types of contaminated soil have already told us everything. With the continuous development of society, our land environment is getting worse and worse, and the original state of ecological co-existence no longer exists. Because of this, our teachers let us observe the soil, understand the soil, and truly helped us to regard it no longer just an art, but as a great force for ecological equality and coexistence!

——7A 纪淑曼 Amanda  

我们热爱大地，就像初生婴儿眷恋母亲温暖的怀抱一样。

这句话诉说了人类就像大地子宫中的婴孩，与大地土壤是不可分割的。这次的艺术展为了唤醒人们对土壤污染这个关乎人类生存问题的关注，通过土壤的各种展示形式来反省地球和人类的生存状况，提醒了人们生态与人类之间的矛盾。宇宙是一个大创造，呈现了多样性，而现在自然界的动植物都有一种退化的状况发生。

We love the earth, just as a newborn baby loves the warm embrace of their mother.

This sentence tells reminds us that human beings are like babies in the womb of the Earth, inseparable from the soil of the Earth. In order to awaken people's attention to soil pollution, which is a problem very much linked to human survival, this art exhibition served to help us reflect on the living conditions of the Earth and of humans through various displays of soil, and to remind us of the contradiction between ecology and humans. The universe is a massive creation showing incredible diversity, but now all the animals and plants in nature have become degraded.

——8E 周舒婷 Shirley

供稿 ｜ 8E 王梓涵 Paul

摄影 ｜ 宋陈工作室

8A 张馨月 Jessica

8B 郭子宸 Jason

排版 ｜ 邢静

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文章转载自：【上海青浦区协和双语学校】