Talk about East meeting West. Sanatorium, a gallery in Turkey, is showing an exhibition on Chinese contemporary photographers, Passing China, from March 25 to April 24. This is in collaboration with Eli Klein Gallery from New York. A look at the list of artists reveal some well-travelled photographers from China – Chen Qiang, Lian Dongya, Li Wei, Liu Bolin, Maleonn, Miao Xiaochun, Pan Yue, Wang Yiqiong, Zuoxiao Zuzhou.

I think that the cross-border showing of photography, especially outside the main art centers can be quite a good primer for a region’s works. I have lost count of the number of people asking me for advice on photography coming from Asia (despite this blog’s moniker, I’m not really an expert). However, the interesting bit comes in when, after viewing the more well-known works, one finds the few gems in the rough. It can be an exhilarating experience.

Visit the gallery’s official website to read more. C-Arts Magazine has a review of the exhibition held in New York here.

TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“swallow“)
© Dayoung Kang, 2009

Dayoung Kang’s swallow series depicts the anonymity and lack of identity in modern society. Faceless characters inhabit the images; unable to communicate with others in the society. The hidden wounds we carry haunt us, yet we continue to swallow the pain. Visit her website here.

This will be the last in the feature on Chung-ang University. I hoped you enjoyed it.

Judith Gehring: My sentence was paid for by an innocent dove, whose beauty was distorted so that I would enjoy freedom!

Damian Pieniazek: I am too ambitious, that’s why I don’t have enough time for my family.

TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“The Guilty“)
© Kwon Ji-hyun, 2009

Kwon Ji hyun won the Best Portfolio award at the Bratislava Month of Photography. Her series, The Guilty, engaged the topic of social consciousness and responsibility. Through the series, she tried to reconcile the guilt of being an artist while the rest of the world continues in persistent suffering.

TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“?? (silent and loneliness) world“)
© Noriko Ishihara, 2009

Highly abstruse, the images’ visual references and palette create an ominous and fantastical feel to the entire series. Yet, beneath the abstract layers lie truths kept away from the world.

TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Menstrual Cycle“)
© Kim Ji-Hye, 2009

For an act as natural as breathing, the topic remains mostly shrouded in mystery for the other half of the human population. Scenes of physical/mental changes, heightened senses and embarrassment are revealed through her images and perhaps bring a little light onto a topic that is usually avoided.

TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“XO pale white“)
© Serry Park, 2009

From her statement:

I cannot open the window, nor watch the clock in my room. The only thing I can do now is to see the daylight from the windows, touch [the] fabric and fall asleep. I and the room, we both could take a rest. Only light and time flow in this room without any will. Then I feel like I finally give a complete denial of what is considered significantly.

She covered her entire room in fabric, removing the functions of the objects that surround her. The private space is turned into an ideal, leaving behind an impression of the prior functional aspects. The images are presented in a dream-like state, far from the messy and clutter we steep ourselves in.

Plug: If you’re an educator based in Asia and would like a similar showcase of works by your students, please feel free to contact me.

Reading, 2009
After Henri Fantin-Latour’s “La Lecture”, 1877

The Charity Lady, 2009
After Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s “La Dame de Charite,” 1775
TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Days Of Our Lives“)
© Wong Hoy Cheong, 2009

Wong Hoy Cheong is a contemporary artist who uses video and photography to bring up discourses on social issues. Born in Penang, Malaysia, he has exhibited widely in Asia and Europe.

In Days of Our Lives, he explores the idea of identity dilution in modern Europe. He reconstructs classical European paintings with models from Europe’s former non Judeo-Christian colonies in Africa, Middle East and Asia. The typical domestic scenes of Old Europe are infused with characters that seem to blend in, yet appear oddly out of place at the same time.

While these paintings are of the past, their topicality and emotions are still as resonant and relevant today…The Judeo-Christian Europeanness of another epoch gives way to a new fluidity and diversity. The past lives in the present, and the present in past as domiciled and naturalized migrant minorities reconstructs a new Europeanness for this century.

View more of this series here. Click here to read an interview on his older works.