Photography Not for Its Own Sake
In the 1920s to 1930s, Chinese photography underwent a relatively mild phase of modernist exploration. However, its course was interrupted by the onset of war and revolution before it could go further. From the 1950s to the 1970s, apart from the occasional acquisition of photographs, the state designated photography as a means of propagating its overarching ideology.
In 1978, China entered a new phase of history with the implementation of economic reforms. As state control over all aspects of political, economic and social life was relaxed, ushering in an era of mass consumption, the number of images circulating in the public sphere grew exponentially, indicating a strengthening of individual consciousness and an inflated desire for consumption. Simultaneously, people's understanding of the role and function of photography also underwent a significant transformation.
At the time, material culture and the efficiency of information dissemination were rudimentary, and a number of conditions, including technical limitations, constrained artists' experimentation and exploration. Nevertheless, the dynamic social changes inspired a desire for individual self-expression and their exciting explorations stimulated artistic creativity, which further contributed to the emancipation of ideas.
While the works of the Chinese photographers and artists discussed in this text do not encompass the entirety of Chinese photography over the past fifty years, they are particularly significant as a counterpoint and dialogue with the foreign artists featured in this exhibition. Their practices are specific to China and have a universal quality that allows them to engage with the world while demonstrating the potential for dialogue between China and the wider world through photography.
The Ecology of Photography in the 1980s
The Chinese photographers and artists featured in this exhibition began their creative practice in the 1980s. In order to contextualize their work, I will provide a general description of the ecology of photography in which they lived, studied and worked at that time, with particular attention to the specifics of photographic consumption.
According to the Shanghai Light Industry Journal published in 1996, “Since 1973, the Shanghai camera equipment industry has received a 62,713 million yuan investment from the state to build the new Shanghai Camera Factory in Songjiang, which covers an area of 112,000 square meters, and 110,000 square meters in construction. In 1978, the Shanghai Camera Factory, Shanghai Camera Factory No.2, and Shanghai Camera Factory No.5 merged into the Shanghai Camera General Factory, which was relocated to Songjiang and started production in October. Until 1980, the annual output of cameras from the Shanghai Camera General Factory reached 200,000 units, becoming the largest professional production enterprise for cameras in the country." As reported in the same journal, in 1985, the total output of all types of cameras produced by the Shanghai Camera General Factory, which claimed to be “first class in the Far East," reached a historical high of 500,000 units. At that time, a domestically produced Seagull brand 35mm single-lens reflex camera would cost a young worker approximately half a year's salary. Concurrently, a number of camera factories of varying scales were built across the country, flooding the market with large quantities of domestic cameras. The camera became one of the public’s most prominentc consumer items, whereas previously, higher-end camera products, such as the Seagull 135 camera mentioned above, had been available only with the use of ration coupons. As large numbers of photographic images were produced, the public’s desire for individual expression grew. Photography enthusiasts sought out references and guidance, and photographers sought platforms for the publication and exchange of their work. Such demands contributed to the growth and prosperity of the photography press.
Meanwhile, a number of independent photography groups emerged nationwide, including the Fission Group in Beijing, the Beihe Alliance Photography Salon in Shanghai, the Five One Group in Xiamen, the People's Photography Association in Guangzhou and the Shaanxi Group in Shaanxi. These independent groups explored photography in accordance with their own concept of this artistic medium, infusing the field with a new vitality.
Photographic Exploration through Personal Expression
On January 1, 1979, the United States of America established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, inaugurating a new era of China’s international relations with the world. In the same year, a young Asian man, usually characterized by an expressionless demeanor, wearing a Sun Yat-sen suit (commonly referred to as the “Mao suit”) and sunglasses, began to appear frequently at various locations around the world, including the United States. His name was Tseng Kwong Chi. He took self-portraits in which he integrated himself as a highly recognizable man of the Orient (actually from mainland China) into many famous tourist attractions. Tseng Kwong Chi called his series "East Meets West." From a conceptual standpoint, using the Sun Yat-sen suit and an Asian countenance to represent the East may have seemed rather simplistic. However, by incorporating this distinctive persona into landmarks that symbolize Western culture, the originality of the photographic effect was revealed. He positioned his highly formalized body as a medium and a symbol, juxtaposing it with iconic landscapes that embodied Western civilization in order to stimulate reflection on the dialogue between East and West by "throwing" or "inserting" himself into the pictures.
Despite the paucity of photography programs in the country's art academies during the 1980s, many art academies were already actively engaged in organizing photography-related events. The Student Photography Association of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1986, challenged prevailing notions of mainstream photography with its open-mindedness and diverse forms of artistic expression. Chen Shuxia, a member of this group, began her photographic explorations not through journalism, but as a method for of constructing her own subjective world. The artist’s three series included in this exhibition and created during her studies, are presented in multiple frames that challenge the limitations of a singular moment. They pursue the unfolding of life in time and space embodied by the multi-frame form. In so doing, the artist demonstrated her desire to explore the potential of photography while revealing her forward-thinking concepts.
In the mid-1980s, while still a student at the art academy, Zhang Hai'er initiated a distinctive approach to self-exploration on the streets of Guangzhou. His street photography absorbed the abundant energy of the streets and successfully transformed it into personal images that were rich in visual tension. His use of flash photography accentuated the theatricality of real life as seen through the lens. Instead of documenting cultural scenes, his photographs transform the atmosphere through external influences such as the use of flash to capture subtle, often fleeting aspects of human nature. In this way, he conveyed a sense of being through his distinctive aesthetic. For him, photography was therefore a means of recording and a medium of individualized performance.
Site, Performance and the Body
In the 1990s, a significant indicator of social transformation in China was the dissolution of restrictions on people’s mobility. Many artists from all over the country relocated to Beijing, settling in the peripheral suburbs, which were then underdeveloped and offered a relatively low cost of living for those working in the city. This gradually led to the emergence of a vibrant underground art scene. RongRong, who also came from outside the city (having been born in Fujian Province), introduced the underground art scene in Beijing in the 1990s with his East Village series. Derided as a “vagrant,” RongRong captured the art events before his eyes, which resonated strongly with his own experiences. In countless photographs, he documented his fellow artists’ performances, including those by Zhang Huan and Zhu Ming. These photographs bear witness to history and reveal the artist's willingness to engage on a personal and subjective level. His series East Village disrupted the subject-object dichotomy of traditional photojournalism, marking the beginning of “new photojournalism."
In 1993, Ma Liuming moved from Wuhan to Beijing and settled in the East Village. He adopted the androgynous figure of “Fen·Ma Liuming" as the vehicle for his performance art, carrying out a series of radical experiments that were immortalized through photography or video. The artist was responsible for directing all aspects of the photography of his performances: controlling the body postures, background and settings as well as the choice of photographer and the final selection of images. In addition, he directed and produced a series of photographs of his “Fen·Ma Liuming" performances in which he acted as both subject and object. These self directed and acted works blurred the boundary between photography and performance art.
In 1996, after the end of the Cold War, Cai Guo-Qiang presented his Century with Mushroom Clouds series. In contrast to Robert Smithson’s Land Art (1938—1973), Cai Guo-Qiang’s interventions were ephemeral; he ignited fireworks that eventually dissipated in smoke (a motif that later beczme one of the hallmarks of his practice), acting upon a specific landscape for a brief period rather than permanently altering its topography. This series also required the artist’s physical presence and employed photography as a means of documenting a specific event.
In the context of the economic boom, contemporary artists began to explore such themes as family, life and death. When painter Song Yongping was suddenly compelled to care for his parents, who were afflict’ed with severe illness, the arduous responsibilities of caregiving and his parents’ eventual demise compelled him to face the harsh realities of life and death as well as a profound sense of loss. His series My Parents (New Life) begins with old family photos of his parents in their youth and ends with portraits and heirlooms. This series encompasses images of his suffering parents and his attempts to compensate for the wedding photo they had never taked in their youth by dressing them both in wedding attire. He also captured images of his parents together to illustrate the affectionate bond between them. It took great courage to address ethical concerns in photography by depicting his parents' naked and deteriorating bodies. Through the medium of photography, the artist re-examined his parents' lives and his relationship with them, thereby reconstructing his personal history with them in images.
Urbanization and its manifestations
China experienced its most rapid economic development between the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium, which marked the most prosperous period for the construction industry. During this time, Luo Yongjin developed a unique methodology for visualizing China’s accelerated growth in infrastructure. He focused on the entirety of the construction process for single buildings, which he captured at different times to eventually form a large image not unlike a contact sheet that comprised detailed moments from the beginning of the construction process to the end. The images are composed of the superimposition of time segments and their unfolding in space. This combination allows the image to serve as a container for more procedural content about the construction, while allowing its embedded time to continuously expand. This work is thus conceived as a record of sorts and, simultaneously, as a personal expression that challenges the nature of documentation.
As a result of China’s accelerated urbanization rate, the skylines of many of its cities are undergoing constant transformation, and the fate of their residents is changing dramatically. Cities, too, have become embodiments of desire and subjects of imagination. Weng Fen's series Sitting on the Wall does not present this process: rather, it conveys the ambiguous relationship between urban dwellers and the city through his unique approach. He requested that young women to sit on a wall, gazing out at the city from the perspective of the "other." It is possible that he sought to highlight the city’s allure and appeal to young women without offering clear answers to what the city might mean to them or what life decisions they might make. His photographs are the result of his own ideas and life experiences. By the time he began the series, works that employed photojournalistic and fictional approaches, sometimes even fiction-based, were becoming increasingly understood and accepted by more and more Chinese artists. Weng Fen's work exemplifies this shift. Sitting on the Wall depicts the faraway city as a distant shore, establishing a kind of dialogue between individuals and the urban landscape. In contrast, Hong Kong-based artist Leung Chi Wo, who lies on the ground and captures the fragmented sky through the prism of Hong Kong's skyscrapers, invites us to feel the sense of urban oppression and confinement in an entirely new way. By presenting the "negative space" of the city, he offers a visual representation of the reality of skyscrapers encroaching upon living space, which constitutes his unique conception of urbanism.
Consumerism and Subculture
At the turn of the new millennium, China's economy enjoyed an prolonged period of prosperity, and consumerist ideals were in full swing. Those who achieved success became the new, highly sought-after social figures. The use of found images, such as advertisements, was a prevalent strategy and technique among many artists at the time; this approach revealed their attitudes and responses to the ideals embedded in the images. Hong Hao, who had previously been an active member of the photography group at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, as was Chen Shuxia, chose to appropriate photography from advertising, playing the role of "Mr. Hong," a man depicted in a relaxed pose, in a context of money worship. His performance embodied the conventional persona of a successful invidividual surrounded by material possessions, ironically portraying the archetypal image of a confident , successful man surrounded by wealth, but also served as a reminder of the growing middle class and the shifting values in the context of globalization.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics marked a pivotal phase in China's global relations, coinciding with the emergence of a lively youthful subculture. Zeng Han and Yang Changhong's Soul Stealer series exemplifies the growing cosplay subculture in Guangzhou and Chongqing. This phenomenon originated in Japan, where young people wearing costumes of anime figures temporarily escaped from their mundane troubles and sense of confusion. However, its intergration into Chinese culture incorporated elements of traditional Chinese practices, further developing its characteristics. Zeng Han and Yang Changhong presented a striking dichotomy by situating the cosplayers in an urban milieu, where their hyper-everyday personas were embodied by their costumes. By focusing on the characters' expressions, costumes and movements, the artists combined portraiture and performance in order to present a new landscape of people and culture.
The Medium’s Expanded Field and the Arrival of the Digital Age
The year 1988 marked the advent of Chinese video art with the creation of artist Zhang Peili’s 30 x 30, his first work. He borrowed a video camera and filmed himself smashing a mirror at a fixed angle, then gluing the broken shards back together again. The duration of the three-hour-long piece was determined by the length of the videotape itself. Although at first glance, this work may have seemed incredibly dull and “futile,” it also demonstrated the fragility and the illusion of the image, while also proclaiming his conception and attitude towards art.
In contrast, Li Yongbin's video work superimposes his face with an urban scene outside the window. His image fades in and out, in light and shade, becoming a metaphor for the uncertain relationships between individuals and the city.
The first decade of the new millennium saw the rapid development and popularization of digital technology, which offered a seemingly more promising guarantee for the accurate reproduction of reality. However, neither Wang Chuan nor Yang Yongliang dedicated efforts to utilize digital technology to create a "hyperreal" reality. In Wang Chuan's Eight Great Sights of Beijing, the artist renders an ambiguous historical scene by enlarging the pixels, highlighting the illusion and technical logic in the representation of reality, encouraging viewers to consider the impact of digital technology on the production of visual media. it could be argued that the pixels, which were written largely in a style reminiscent of brushstrokes, represent the true significance of digital aesthetics. Yang Yongliang's Phantom Landscape not only embeds the modern cityscape into the “format” or “motif" of traditional Chinese landscape painting, but also endeavors to integrate the dichotomy of nature and culture into a “digital landscape” imbued with a sense of the “sublime” that is harmonious from afar yet contains many conflicting elements when observed in close detail, a juxtaposition that encourages reflection on modern civilization and the relationship between man and nature.
Previously known as Xu Wenkai, Aaajiao creates self-portraits that challenge the commercial logic underlying NFTs. Addressing issues from cryptocurrency to the “crypto-image” and the “crypto-self,” the artist raises the question of the relationship between art and private ownership. This inevitably involves other fundamental subjects such as art and capital and the role of power.
Conclusion
In China, photography suddenly encountered its “second avant-garde,” as it is referred to in this exhibition, when its modernist trajectory had not yet fully unfolded. However, The Chinese artists and photographers featured in this exhibition reflected on how they could engage with reality, and what forms of expression they could adopt in light of their circumstances and artistic intentions. Their work, and the impact it has had, has unexpectedly shown a certain consistency with the explorations of their peers in other parts of the world. Surprising as this may be, it is a fact that must be acknowledged.
The works included in the exhibition, especially those from the earlier period, were explorations shaped by the artists’ experience and perceptions at a time when there was little external information to draw upon. In many cases, the artists had picked up a camera or video recorder out of on an immediate and visceral desire to document or comment on their surroundings rather than to create a perfect, harmonious image. Their goal was to make photographs that conveyed or encapsulated their perspectives and positions, regardless of aesthetic or stylistic considerations that make a “good picture”. Moreover, it was of little importance to the artists who actually took the photograph. For them, a photograph could serve either as evidence of reality or as the realization of an idea. In other words, the so-called perfect moment or narrative logic that was considered the norm in traditional photography could not limit or suppress their strong desire for expression. Nor should their photographs be measured by conventional standards of photographic aesthetics. It is possible that many of them did not consciously question the mainstream aesthetics of photography at the time. But the way they approached the medium from the outset may have been contrary to, or antagonistic towards, the established dogmas of photography, and their practices may have even dismantled and subverted what were esteemed as the “laws” of photography. Still, their works are ultimately presented as photographs—this is the medium they consciously wanted to represent their art. For these artists, photography in many cases serves as a conduit through which they can perceive a material and medium that they have chosen to express their ideas as easily and fully as possible. Their choices broadened the possibilities of the photographic medium. In their hands, photography has become a more expansive medium that can integrate naturally with other mediums, blurring its boundaries with other visual forms. Their works of art thus extend the limits and vocabulary of photography and renew the definition of the medium. In essence, then, this is a kind of photography not for its own sake.