Jacque Liu – Artist

The Peach Blossom Spring. 2015. A collaborative project with Sarah Kate Burgess, commissioned by the Asian Arts Initiative as part of their Projects on Pearl Street series. Public Art Installation, Philadelphia, PA. Photos and video by Jaime Alvarez. 

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The Peach Blossom Spring is a community-based public art project. It consists of handmade pinwheels mounted to grates along the 1200 block of Pearl Street. In Chinese culture, the pinwheel is a symbol to turn one’s luck around; and the more it spins, the greater the fortune.

Printed on each pinwheel is one of three hand-drawn patterns based on elements derived from the Chinese essay, The Peach Blossom Spring, by poet and scholar Tao Yuanming; the elements are: Water, Cloud, and Peach Blossom Flower.

The fable tells the story of a fisherman who lives during a period of political and cultural unrest. One day, he happens upon a secret village, marked by blossoming peach trees, where the people lead an ideal existence. The fisherman is generously welcomed and upon leaving, he is urged not to reveal their existence to the outside world. Despite this, he marks his return meticulously; but he cannot find the spring again.

Within the context of the alleyway and socially-engaged artist work of Asian Arts Initiative, our project draws on ideas of change, possibility, and the never ending search for the ideal. On each of the peach blossom flower pinwheels, there is writing and drawing by the surrounding community done in response to the question: What makes a place perfect?