FOR-SITE is honored to present Yunfei Ren at The Guardhouse as part of The Guardhouse Program, which is designed to serve three artists annually, each of whom will create a temporary art installation.

The Guardhouse, a former military guard station at the main entrance to Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, is situated with views of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. Calling forth the Golden Gate’s history as a point of entry for transpacific migration, Ren’s installation at The Guardhouse commemorates the more than 300,000 Chinese immigrants who endured a several weeks-long steamship voyage from southern China to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush (1848-1855) up until the U.S. Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, when Chinese laborers were banned from entering on the basis of racial identity. The installation is situated on the waterfront with views of Angel Island, where between 1910 and 1940 an estimated several hundred thousand Chinese, Japanese, and other immigrants entered the United States through the Angel Island Immigration Station in pursuit of the “American Dream.”

To create his installation, Ren makes unorthodox use of Joss papers, which are traditionally burned as ancestral offerings in Chinese culture, by eclipsing the interior walls of the historic building. The individually tacked papers flutter inside The Guardhouse against the forced air of an oscillating fan reminiscent of one that cooled the artist’s childhood home. “I have been obsessed with building portals that look into the past and connect me to the history of transpacific migration,” Ren says. Joss paper is tied to the Qingming Festival, also known as the Tomb Sweeping Festival, in which families pay respect to ancestors by caring for their gravesites and making offerings.

Between the Gold Rush and the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, over 300,000 Chinese immigrants endured a month-long steamship journey from southern China to San Francisco. The prevailing winds that propelled the ships also symbolize the forces that drive individuals to leave their homes.

Joss paper, traditionally burned as ancestral offerings in Chinese culture, serves as portals bridging the past and present. The grid pattern evokes longitude and latitudes that map the movement of people. While the fan, reminiscent of those from the artist's upbringing, intertwines personal history with the legacy of transpacific migration.