Monday, December 28, 2009

China, Lishui 2-A: I forgot to mention....

And one more photographer I forgot. I can't tell you his name, nor the title of the series, nor where to find the work because everything about him was only in Chinese. This was a persistent challenge in the Chinese pavilions. Much of the supplemental text was only in Chinese. It was a particular challenge in this work because there was text printed on the image. Clearly this artist wanted us to have the information. I think it was called "New Family" or "Second Family"...something like that. It showed couples or whole families that had been formed because each spouse had lost their counterpart in the great earthquake. Moved, I suppose, by their shared loss and experience, they sought to find a replacement for the half they lost. Each photo had text written on the photo that described the individual's situation and how the new family came to be formed.

I only had base-level translation for any of this, so I can't vouch for how accurate I'm being about the work. And, as in the post above, context was missing. Was this about loss? About forging into the future despite great setbacks? Were these families "formed" by the government and these photos made against their wishes? I have NO idea. Visually they were strong, and the text seemed moving from what was read to me. I hope at some point I can learn more.

1 comment:

  1. It turns out this work was a prize winner from the Festival, so belatedly I learned the name and title: An Guangxi, "Family of Second Marriage". Check it out.

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