“About footprints”
2023
LI YAOZE
There is a small mountain behind my house. People used to say a wolf once roamed there—its presence whispered through the trees, leaving behind a certain tension in the air. But over time, the mountain was gradually transformed by human hands: trails were carved, fences erected, spaces cleared for leisure. As the landscape changed, wildlife quietly disappeared.
Still, I remained drawn to the old stories. I began a series of solitary expeditions into the mountain, hoping to find traces of the wolf—perhaps a tuft of fur, scat, or remnants of prey. For two months, I searched, watched, waited. What I found was not the animal itself, but something else—its absence, thick and palpable. The wolf was gone. And yet, it felt as if it still moved somewhere between the leaves and the silence. It no longer lived in flesh, but in memory, in shadow, in the feeling of being watched.
Eventually, I began to notice the moss.
It was everywhere—growing from stone, climbing tree bark, spreading across soil. It grew in corners overlooked, in crevices shaped by time and weather. The moss became, for me, the quiet residue of the wolf’s presence. It witnessed what we could no longer see. In its soft, persistent growth, I saw the wolf’s footprint—not in form, but in spirit.
This work emerged from that realization. The moss became my medium, my metaphor. It embodies repetition and uncertainty, absence and return. The wolf may be extinct in this landscape, but its trace remains—diffuse, spectral, and quietly alive in every patch of green.
在我家后面有一座小山。人们曾说那儿曾有一只狼出没——它的身影在树间低语，给空气中留下某种紧张感。但随着时间的推移，这座小山渐渐被人类改变：开辟了步道，竖起了围栏，空地也变成了休闲场所。随着景观的变化，野生动物悄然消失。
然而，我依然被那些旧日传说所吸引，开始独自踏上山林探寻之旅，希望找到狼的痕迹——也许是一撮毛发、一堆粪便，或者猎物残余。两个月来，我搜索、观察、等待。最终，我所发现的并非那只动物本身，而是另一种东西——那缺席感，浓厚而真实。狼已不再出现，但总觉得它似乎仍徘徊在树叶与静谧之中。它不再以肉体存在，而是活在记忆、影子以及那被注视的感觉中。
渐渐地，我开始注意到苔藓。
苔藓无处不在——它生长在石头上，攀附在树皮上，蔓延在泥土间。它在那些被忽略的角落里、在时间和风雨雕刻出的缝隙中悄然生长。对我来说，苔藓成了狼曾存在过的沉默残留物。它记录下了我们已无法看见的一切。在那柔软而持续生长的痕迹中，我看到了狼的踪迹——不是以具体的形态，而是一种精神上的印记。
正是基于这一领悟，作品应运而生。苔藓成为我的媒介和隐喻，它体现了重复与不确定、缺失与重现。或许这座山上已经没有了狼，但它的痕迹依然存在——弥散、幽灵般，静静地在每一片绿色中活着。