Chinese Avantgarde Photography 1980S-90S
curated by RongRong
Blindspot Gallery
24-26A, Aberdeen Street, Central - Hong Kong
11/5/2013 - 22/6/2013
Featured artists:
Ai Wei Wei, Gu Zheng, Han Lei, Hong Lei, Jiang Zhi, Liu Zheng, Mo Yi, Qiu
Zhijie, Zhang Haier, Zhao Liang, Zheng Guogu and RongRong
Blindspot Gallery
is proud to present “New Framework: Chinese Avant-‐garde Photography
1980s-‐90s” in mid-‐May, a group show featuring the photographic works of Ai
Wei Wei, Gu Zheng, Han Lei, Hong Lei, Jiang Zhi, Liu Zheng, Mo Yi, Qiu Zhijie,
Zhang Haier, Zhao Liang, Zheng Guogu and RongRong from the 1980s to 1990s.
Curated by artist and curator RongRong, the exhibition will take place at both
Blindspot Gallery in Central and Blindspot Annex in Wong Chuk Hang.
From the
1940s to the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, photography in China was limited
to official media and private family portraits. The revolution of Chinese
photography only began in the 1980s with the birth of the New Wave art movement,
China’s economic development, and the influx of Western ideology from the
country’s opening.
From the 1980s to 1990s, Chinese photography developed
through the key stages of “New Documentary” photography, conceptual photography
and experimental photography. This exhibition showcases the major styles and
evolving facets of avant-‐garde photography from the period. The title “New
Framework” denotes how these Chinese photographers used the medium to establish
a new visual framework outside of the academia and institutions, and to create
artworks that resonate with experimentalism.
“New Documentary” photography
was one of the axises of Chinese photography in the 1980s. During this period,
documentary photography was no longer limited to documenting reality, as artists
transcended the social criticism in early documentary photography and set out to
convey their subjectivities. The black and white photographic works of Gu Zheng,
Han Lei, Mo Yi and Zhang Haier fall into this category. The artists captured the
cityscapes or the individual experience in the city on snapshots, as the images
embody both documentation and echoes of conceptual photography.
In the
mid-‐1990s, experimental art and experimental photography came to prominence.
The photographic works from this period fuse such elements as installation,
staged photography, performance to highlight the conceptual and experimental
nature of the creation. The black and white and color images of Ai Wei Wei, Hong
Lei, Qiu Zhijie, Jiang Zhi and Zheng Guogu are representative works of this
stream. The establishment of East Village in the 1990s was another key stimulus
to experimental photography. The artists based in the East Village used the
photographic medium to record and participate in performance art. East Village
by RongRong is one of the major photographic works from this period.
Curator
RongRong voyaged into experimental photography in the 1990s and was an active
presence in the East Village, the cradle of Chinese experimental art. In the
mid-‐1990s, RongRong co-‐founded the New Photo magazine, the first independent
conceptual photography magazine in China, with Liu Zheng. New Photo published an
eclectic selection of conceptual photographic works by artists who emerged in
the 1980s and 1990s, including most of the works featured in this exhibition.
With his wife and artistic partner inri, RongRong founded the Three Shadows
Photography Art Centre in 2007 for promoting the development of Chinese
photography
