M97 Gallery is pleased to present “Spiral”, an exhibition of 3D lenticular color photographs by Han Lei. This is Han Lei’s third solo exhibition at M97 and the first time this new body of work is exhibited.

Beginning in the 1980s, Han Lei’s career has gone on to be one of the most diverse and influential in China for his ongoing exploration of photography as visual art. Working in still photography, video, and painting over the course of the past two decades, Han Lei’s "Spiral" series blurs the lines between different genres and artistic mediums.

For the past two years, Han Lei has been experimenting with grating plates to create three-dimensional images. For the artist, the process of stereo photographs is as intriguing as traditional media such as silver gelatin prints. His enthusiasm for this particular material and his investigation into it diversifies the artist’s understanding of the “moving images”, giving birth to more creative possibilities. 

Through a variety of imagery of various genres from vernacular images to photographic objects, Han Lei’s stereo photographs enable the viewer to observe what the artist calls “transient instants”; static moments that might vanish are otherwise given motion and dynamism. The artist presents the time lapse of those “transient instants”, showing how, after appearing for a brief second, they would be disappearing into a new silhouette or swallowed by immense flickering shadows or colors.