#2 Review

Equal Relationships

During the New Year holiday, I went to an exhibition named Equal Relationships in the Blindspot Gallery. As someone who takes a great interest in photography, I’ve always enjoyed appreciating different kinds of photography arts. This time, the exhibition did not fail me in that it includes works of two photographers that are distinct and similar in different ways. They are 223 (Lin Zhi Peng) and Ren Hang.

I have followed 223 for quite some time as he is already a famous artist in mainland China. Photos of his that are displayed in this exhibition are daily snapshots featuring ordinary people, which is just of his style. Unlike many photographers, he does not use a single-lens reflex camera; instead, he likes to use simple fool-proof film camera. It gives a special feeling in his works that brings out something unordinary in ordinary lifestyles. Let’s see some of his works.

Fowl

This is a fun scene: countryside, big howling airplane, grown-ups holding their heads up high, little girl covering her ear. Couldn’t be more true and living. While the grown-ups are (presumably) staring at the airplane as it is something new to them (given the country background), this little girl just can not bear with the overwhelming noise. Maybe for her, this giant steel machine is just a weird and annoying fowl.

Above the city

This one is my personal favorite: a man in red with a black umbrella standing on the top of a building, way high above the city, his head looking towards the camera. It is a beautiful scene: the contrast of red and black (which happened to be my favorite colours), the fog, the looming city.

Unlike 223’s daily snapshots, Ren Hang’s works are more like movies. They were carefully constructed scenes. The photos are the final outcome of his work, but we should also try to see his intention behind these scenes, just as we should try to have some literacy about movies and intentions of the directors, acting of the actors or so when we are watching movies.

Many of his works feature nude bodies. But instead of having a sensual effect, most of the time, his nude photos give me feelings of despair, boredom and even voidness with the weird and twisting poses and empty eyes of the models.

A quote from Ren Hang: ”Despair is more true.”（「失望反而令人感到真實」）Perhaps he cares more about truth than beauty. In a way, I agree with this statement, for it is easier to capture beauty than truth. While beauty pleases the eyes at the moment, truth remains longer in time. This statement also echoes with the way 223 takes photos with a fool-proof camera: if you are capturing truth and all you care about is the truth in your photos, it does not matter what kind of camera you are using.

A couple of his works are as follows.

Untitled 12

Untitled 12

Untitled 12

The last photo reminds me of some early works of another photographer named Zhang Huan, one of the best modern experimentalist artists in China who currently lives in New York. They both put naked people in wild nature, comparing and contrasting green nature and nude bodies.

To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond, 1997, Performance, Beijing, China, Zhang Huan

To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain, 1995, Performance, Beijing, China, Zhang Huan

Nine Holes, 1995, Performance, Beijing, China, Zhang Huan

I wonder about the name of this exhibition. What equal relationship is this exhibition trying to display? Is it the relationship between these two artists? Or the one between the photographers and the objects that they’re shooting? The one between art and everyday life? Interpretations can be many. All I can say is that both of their works have shown some aspects of the lives of the current generation, the scene of which may not be pretty to look at, but there is definitely some truth in them.