Zhang Peng photographs dolls with frozen expressions, against lush ambiguous backgrounds. With a background in painting, his images are striking to behold.
Guifei, 2007
© Zhang Peng
Red No. 3, 2007
© Zhang Peng
Angel No. 1, 2006
© Zhang Peng
Yi Fan No. 2, 2006
© Zhang Peng
The artist on his works:
In a broad sense, all of my works demonstrate a kind of oppression. If conditions allow, parents plan a future that they think will be good for their children. If they are not wealthy enough, they hope their children will have a skill and then they force them to develop it. As children grow up, their character is distorted by the inappropriate pressure of their parents and their schools. The appearances of my figures drift between real people and dolls. While the image is aesthetic, I also want to reinforce the strong sense of distortion.
More disturbing and shocking images can be found on his website.
Sometimes I can’t help but being critical towards contemporary chinese photography employing ’shock’ element but lacking in substance.
First, I want to say that I do think these images are very beautiful to look at. Beyond that, though, I tend to have very little patience for artwork that seeks only to victimize it’s subjects. And I don’t mean that the oppression the artist speaks of is not present, or important, but as artists, I think we should seek to empower those who need empowering, and not just adopt a “poor them” or “look, how oppressed” attitude. These photographs seem, to me, only to reinforce the oppression the artist is so critical of.