China Stories
Harvey Benge, Neuseeland
Øyvind Hjelmen, Norwegen
Ferit Kuyas, Schweiz
Pok Chi Lau, USA
7. September – 5. Oktober 2008
Eröffnung: Sa. 6.9.2008, 20 h
Einführung: Peter V. Brinkemper
Harvey Benge - China Story
Eine Erzählung in Projektionsform - 106 Einzelbilder zusammengestellt
in Dyptichen. Die Geschwindigkeit des Wandels im Alltag erfordert eine Transformierung
und nicht eine Verdrängung der Vergangenheit. Benge sucht diese Brüche,
findet aber auch Harmonien – eine visuelle Stadtanthropologie.
www.harveybenge.com
Øyvind Hjelmen - Journey Elsewhere
Schwarzweiß-Kontakte, persönlich empfundene Impressionen einer ersten
Reise durch China. Ein Spiel mit der Schärfe und Unschärfe der Eindrücke,
atmosphärisch dichte Wahrnehmungen unterwegs in Stadt und Land.
www.oyvindhjelmen.com
Ferit Kuyas - City of Ambition
Großformatige Stadtlandschaften erfassen Chongqing, eine der größten
Städte der Welt, in ihrem rasanten ökonomischen Wandel. Kulissenartige,
fast surreale, Outskirts lassen die City von Chongquing, in deren Umkreis 32
Mill. Menschen leben, nur erahnen.
www.feritkuyas.com
Pok Chi Lau – China 1979 -1982 - Post Chairman Mao Period
1969 emigriert Lau von Hongkong nach USA, studiert Fotografie und dokumentiert
das Leben in den Chinatowns. Seit 30 Jahren hält er bei Besuchen in China
die Veränderungen im Land fest. Die s/w Arbeiten, entstanden 1979-85, zeigen
Überreste der Slogans und Zeichen von Mao und Kulturrevolution.
www.pokchilau.com
Harvey Benge - China Story
My pictures explore the strange anthropology of cities. The unusual and overlooked
in the human landscape. I am asking the viewer to question the idea that photographs
as documents are complete representations of subject. I'm interested in the
universality of life and the idea of parallel lives - when one thing is happening
here, something else is happening over there. The democracy of non-places fascinates
me, in the knowledge that inevitably nothing is as it seems.
There is something that always hits you in any city and becomes a sort of visual
leitmotif. These are series I made in 2006 and 2007 when I was a guest at the
Pingyao Festival in Shanxi Province China.
The book: China Story just arrived fresh from press.
www.harveybenge.com
Øyvind Hjelmen - Journey Elsewhere
In December 2007, I travelled through China. To me China is a truly exotic
place — with its wild natural beauty, and different peoples and customs,
and richly complex man-made environments loaded with contrasts and history.
And when I travel to such a place, my photographs are not meant to show what
China looks like.
Instead, I try to note my impressions of little bits of grace and surprise that
I discover day by day. One may ask, is such a journey really a journey elsewhere,
or is it just a journey going deeper within oneself? To be honest, I think both
ideas are true, and they nourish each other. The heightened awareness that quite
naturally comes with travel to foreign lands helps me to learn to look at more
familiar surroundings with new delight and awe.
www.oyvindhjelmen.com
Ferit Kuyas - City of Ambition
This is a visit to one of the largest cities in the world, Chongqing, populated
by roughly 32 million people. The city is located in Southwest China region
of Sichuan. Chongqing was the capital of China during World War II.
Like most of my work also this project has autobiographic roots: I got to know
the city through my in-law-family who lives there and makes me feel at home.
I am mainly interested in the outskirts of Chongqing, where the city can’t
be really seen but sensed, like a tiger moving through the jungle – invisible,
yet there. Construction sites and places of change show metaphorical facets
of the huge changes taking place in contemporary China. After many travels it
seems like the more I learn the less I know.
www.feritkuyas.com
Pok Chi Lau – China 1979 -1982 - Post Chairman Mao Period
"After doing this work for over 30 years I am lost for words as for a statement
of work. I live in my work, and I escape from it every once in a while to see
what I am up to. The context is so complex because it is not about what I have
done, but my perception of the world of China in her contemporary history, most
of which gets lost in translation."
When Lau was 19 and living in Hong Kong, his parents borrowed enough money to
pay for two cameras, a plane ticket and college tuition. He studied at the Brooks
Institute of Photography and the California Institute of the Arts. Beginning
in the late 1970s, Lau traveled from one Chinatown to the next documenting the
lives of Chinese immigrants working at mines, railroads, laundries and restaurants
and often living in cramped conditions.
Slideshow - Pok Chi Lau "China 1979-2005 Asian-Americans"
www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/chilau/index.html
www.pokchilau.com
China Stories unter den Top 10 der 19. Int. Photoszene Köln www.photoszene.de
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