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The
camera turns into a weapon, a third eye and a secret device recording
events that I am not aware of in the particular moment of time. In 1976,
when I was three years old, the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended. Two
years later, our family left China. In 2004 and 2005 I returned twice
to China, and during each trip I spent a month living in the southern
city, Guangzhou, where I was born. The propaganda films, national songs,
and loud voices from speakerphones that characterized my childhood are
gone. Instead, western influences are now implanting Hip Pop culture
among the Chinese youth, Yuppie culture among young professionals, Internet
culture, and a new sense of fashion. However, the details of Chinese
living stay the same – layers of dirt and dust lie on every object
and surface, trash lies in the street, broken windows, rusted doors,
layers of posters and words cover surfaces, unfinished painted walls,
and people nimbly responding to ever changing government policies.
In this series of photographs, the aesthetics of grids
are utilized as metaphors to examine individualism as reconstructed
and intertwined with infrastructures of contemporary culture. By placing
emphasis on innovative digital techniques and conceptual analysis, the
photographs enhance awareness of the roles of the camera, subject and
viewer. The viewer is led to actively compose narratives through the
beauty, irony, and solitude in these photographs. The events of seeing,
being seen and remaining unseen open up understandings and communicate
a social statement. The construction of “Chinese Playground”
is individualized but also universal, aiming to open borders that separate
cultural, linguistic, and historical differences.
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