University At Buffalo - News Center: UB Artist's Exhibit Utilizes Sound, Songs To Convey Complex Stories From Silk Road

Press release from the University at Buffalo - News Center:

March 15, 2022

Mountains of white sand, vast desert landscapes, harsh climates and unknown dangers awaited those who traveled the Silk Road routes hundreds of years ago. Merchants, buyers and traders traversed these lands to acquire silk, teas, fruit, spices, precious metals and other highly sought-after goods to bring back to their respective countries, but they also encountered thieves, slave markets and venomous snakes. 

Over time, the land routes closed and business took place via the sea, but Millie Chen, a University at Buffalo professor of art and Humanities Institute faculty fellow, has devoted herself to studying the intangible history of landscapes and places that, due to many factors, remain erased.

Chen has spent many years making artwork about social injustice by focusing on invisible histories of the land and harnessing the power of the human voice through music.

In a new multimedia project, Chen and Arzu Ozkal, an artist and associate professor in the School of Art & Design at San Diego State University, worked together on an interdisciplinary exhibit called SRS, an audio-video project that weaves songs of dissent into the land, broadcasting women’s distinct, unruly voices on an ancient Eurasian migration route between Istanbul, Tehran, Parkent, Kashgar and Kangle.

SRS is on exhibit in Xi’an, China, through March 27. Four more “works-in-progress” are planned for other locations.

“My past projects contemplated landscapes in relation to atrocities; SRS tackles injustice with more optimism,” Chen says. “SRS germinated a decade ago while making other artwork about social injustice that focused on erased histories of the land; in a number of these works, I channeled the power of the human voice through music as a counteracting force. Sound is underrated in vision-dominant societies. Herein lies its potency as an interventionist tool.”

One of the questions Chen and Ozkal explored for the exhibit was how creative resiliency can thrive when there is limited freedom of expression. By conveying the complex stories emerging from each place and person they work with, they challenge Orientalist exoticism, cultural tourism and censorship, disrupting the grand, tidy narrative of the popular perception of the Silk Road.

“Effective songs of dissent provide a way out of feeling helpless, even spreading optimism. That’s why they’re dangerous,” Chen says. “SRS emerged from these ponderings, expanding on the relationship between land, mourning and dissent by using the persuasive power of songs.”

The full SRS project will consist of multiple interrelated parts: a single-channel video, an audio-video installation, a song album and a digital/print songbook publication.

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