|
Disorientation:
an exhibition of the work of seven Chinese photographers
and video artists, most of whom are currently active in Beijing.
Widely divergent in style, the work on display shows an acute
awareness of the most recent developments in photography
and photo-based work in Europe and America at the same time
as it reflects galvanic changes in the daily life of contemporary
China.
Ten
years ago, at the height of the Political Pop and Cynical
Realism movements, most young artists still worked in the
traditional medium of oil on canvas but for the next generation
other means of expression - notably photography, assemblage,
installation and performance art - became more relevant to
the contemporary situation.
Among
the artists in this exhibition, Hong Lei is the most attached
to traditional Chinese themes - in his case the paintings
of flowers, birds and landscapes from the Song Dynasty -
but his still-life and landscape photographs show how far
modern China has moved from the concerns of China's golden
age. Zhao Liang and Han Lei reveal an unexpected poetry in
their photographs of the cities and landscape of China today
as it undergoes the most rapid transformation in its history
while He An focuses on the poignant contrasts between the
living conditions of the disadvantaged and the dream world
of international ad-campaigns.
He
Yunchang and Ma Han document their own very different performances,
while Zhou Jing uses figures of dolls, greatly enlarged and
dramatically lit, in her exploration of issues of gender
and childhood innocence.
Referring to the coexistence of widely divergent
world-views in contemporary China - from the traditional
to the most advanced - the critic Zhan Li believes that it
is difficult to avoid a feeling of disorientation. In their
different ways, the seven artists in this exhibition respond
to the changing world in which they live.
More images from this exhibition
Catalogue Available |