© Liu Ke
© Chen Chunlin
Eight Chinese photographers are having an exhibition from Nov 19 to Dec 31 at the interesting-looking Redstar 35 building in Chengdu. The participating photographers are: Adou, Chen Chunlin, Feng Li, Li Jun, Luo Dan, Liu Ke, Muge and Yang Yi. The group’s images focus on a slice of life in modern day China, often with a penchant for the more mysterious aspects.
Click here to see more images.
TOP, from (“2922“)© Luke Cassady-Dorion, 2008
My friend, Luke, in conjunction with H Gallery, is having an exhibition at the EAT ME Art Restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. He has been based there for the last couple of years (learning lots of languages, teaching yoga and creating art!) and was a wonderful host when I visited last year.
This series of work was shot in 2008, when Luke returned home to San Francisco after Obama won the elections. He had planned to capture the signs of the Bush administration but decided to focus his sight on the change – in the form of renewed hope and pride, that was creeping into the country.
For more, please visit his website.
Playing for Dying Mother, 2009
After Puvis de Chavannes’ “Jean Cavalier jouant le choral de Luther devant sa mere mourante,” 1851
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.
TOP, untitled, 2009
© Rinko Kawauchi
Rinko Kawauchi would be having an exhibition at Mountain Fold Gallery in New York for an entire month. The show, “Condensation”, is a collection of new and old works from the Japanese photographer. I’ve always been a fan of Kawauchi and would love to be there. An interesting aspect of the show would be to see how Kawauchi’s normally thematic images work together out of context and placed side by side. Her work possesses a melancholic peacefulness, soft and ethereal but always etched in reality. Do drop by if you’re in NYC.
Exhibition details:
Oct 19 – Nov 28
Mountain Fold Gallery
55 Fifth Avenue 18th Floor
New York, NY, 10003
TOP TO BOTTOM, “Approach Lights #3“, “On White #1“, “On the Margin”
© Tsukasa Yokozawa, 1999-2005
Tsukasa Yokozawa is a Japanese photographer living and working in New York. A selection of his works from various series are currently on exhibition at Motus Fort, a gallery in Tokyo.
Yokozawa on his works:
I place plural and independent things on the same plane parallel to each other. Even though at first sight they seem to be synchronized, they are in fact each individual and singular. I would like to affirm this unsynchronized nature of the world—for love is what remains unsynchronized.
While I think the prints would definitely be better than the images online, I found the artist statement to be pretentious and convoluted. The images are stunning and it takes a while to get what the artist is trying to say through his works. It’s feels like having the wool pulled over my eyes. I could be wrong and cranky (had a draining day in the office) and will reread the images in a clearer state of mind.
Anyway, visit his portfolio to take a better look at his works. Let me know what you think.
The Tao Gallery in Hong Kong is looking for new/young Chinese photographers working primarily in black and white along contemporary themes. Interested parties can send a pdf portfolio to Scott Minick via email. Good luck to everyone who’s applying!
TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Dali Island“)
© Madi Ju
Madi Ju is a freelance photographer based in Beijing. Her images are steeped in the style of the snapshot aesthetic; loosely framed, usually shot on a compact camera and often an extension of the photographer’s life. She was once the other half of online photo-phenomenon My Little Dead Dick (some images NSFW), a love story that took the world by storm. Since they parted, she has been working in the fashion/editorial scene in China.
I wouldn’t call myself a fan (I had some troubles picking out the right images) but I do think that photos like these is a reflection of the current zeitgeist. Even though some of the other images failed to elicit much emotional response from me, some of you might be thrilled to see them. Everything is subjective anyway. For more, check out her portfolio.
The Singapore International Photography Festival will be back next year and I’m so excited! It’s one of the largest showcase of photography in Singapore (or the region) and if you missed it, the next installation promises to be bigger and better!
The open call for exhibition submissions started today and is meant to showcase both established and emerging photographers. There are two categories that you should be aware of: the open category where there is no fixed theme and the theme-based category. The theme is Human:Nature and artists are welcome to interpret this.
For emerging photographers from Southeast Asia, the workshop and portfolio review will be held once again. I was a participant last year and learnt a lot from it. And I made friends with some of the coolest bunch of people on Earth. More details can be found here.
As a volunteer-run event, the festival requires as many hands as possible. If you are dedicated and willing to work for a good cause, please do not hesitate to render your services. Enquire here.
The open call ends on March 30, 2010. Note that there would be a charge this time for the submissions in order to sieve out people who are really interested.
My friends are having an exhibition this weekend at the Arts House. As part of Objectifs’ Shooting Home program, I’m curious how the photographers have developed over the course of one year. Do check out the exhibition or join them for the guided tour on Oct 10 for more insight into their works.
The Unfamiliarity of the Familiar presents the photographic works of nine diversely different individuals coming together to present their point of views and their take on the world and issues around them. These individuals – students, homemakers, and young professionals amongst them, use the language of photography to create their narratives on themes ranging from alienation, familial ties, identity to sexuality.
Among these artists a common thread runs through their presented works. The intention of each artist is to bring a facet of their experience of the unfamiliar in things that are familiar to us. In the process of doing so, a new light is shed on sights and scenes that are commonly seen around us such that they become somewhat less predictable and a little more unfamiliar.
Despite the diversity of the themes and influences found in the works, the exhibition aims to achieve cohesiveness in the overall presentation through strategic investigative motifs and approaches. And in so doing, it is hoped that these approaches will give rise to new insights and spectacles of the modern world.
The exhibition is curated by Francis Ng, a local award-winning mixed media artist. Artists featured: Chen Wei Li, Ulla Gratton, Malcolm Koh, Jean Qingwen Loo, Kevin Seow, Mulyadi Syariffudin Tan Ching Yee, Tan Bee Hoon and Shaun Tan.
Venue: The Arts House at Old Parliament
1 Old Parliament Lane
Dates: 1 Oct till 21 Oct 2009
Opening Hours: 10 am – 10pm daily
Guided Tour: 10 Oct 2009 (Sat) 2.30pm – 3.30pm
Official Opening: 30 Sept 2009 (Wed) 7.30pm – 10pm
Of Forest, Sea and Mountain’
Of Forest, Sea and Mountain’ is a collection of images depicting the deconstruction of conventional landscape by three talented photographers Dju-lian Chng, Jovian Lim and Ang Song Nian , which will be exhibited at 2902 Gallery from Nov 25 to Dec 16.
Evoking a sense of an unusual mix of romanticism and avant-garde, it is the personal self-interpretation of landscapes and a reflection of the emerging state-of-the-art innovations of photography. This exhibition will challenge the very archetypal notions of landscape and introduce a fresh visual introspective of their personal constructed landscapes deliberately imbibed with intended meanings about life, technology and space.
Having been acquainted with the photographers’ works, I do believe that we are heralding a new frontier in the local photography scene. One would never imagine images like this being exhibited ten years ago but look at how things have changed since then.
Dju-lian and Jovian works as a team and their online portfolio can be seen here. Unfortunately, Song Nian’s website is still in progress (well, the last I spoke to him). I can’t wait to see the prints!