New Exhibition, Shehuo: Community Fire, to Open May 13

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University is pleased to present Shehuo: Community Fire, a new exhibit by Zhang Xiao, the 11th recipient of the museum's Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography. The exhibition will open on Saturday, May 13 and will explore the transformation of Shehuo, a traditional spring festival held in rural northern China that coincides with the New Year.

When Zhang began his photography in 2007, Shehuo (社火, Community Fire) was celebrated with great regional variation, and included prayers for a good harvest and ritual performances of local folk tales. A decade later, he found that the festival—while still fascinating and visually engaging—had become a highly commercialized, tourist enterprise—with mass-produced props and costumes.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a related book of photographs, Zhang Xiao: Community Fire (Aperture Press/Peabody Museum Press, July 2023), which includes text by Ou Ning, a writer, curator, and writer based in New York.

The museum will present a special public preview event on Thursday, May 11 at 6:00 pm with Zhang Xiao in conversation with Ou Ning, followed by a reception in the galleries. The event is part of ArtsThursdays, a university-wide initiative supported by Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA).

The exhibition will be on display at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology from May 13, 2023 through April 14, 2024. For more information, visit the museum's website at peabody.harvard.edu.

Media Contact

Faith Sutter, Harvard Museums of Science & Culture faith_sutter@harvard.edu

Images available upon request