Blindspot Gallery presents "New Framework: Chinese Avant-garde Photography 1980-90s", a group show featuring the photographic works of Ai Wei Wei, Gu Zheng, Han Lei, Hong Lei, Jiang Zhi, Liu Zheng, Mo Yi, Qiu Zhijie, Zhang Haier, Zhao Liang, Zheng Guogu and RongRong from the 1980s to 1990s. Curated by artist and curator RongRong, the exhibition will take place at both Blindspot Gallery and Blindspot Annex in Wong Chuk Hang. The show at Blindspot Annex has ended on June 22nd 2013. The show at Blindspot Gallery in Central has been extended to July 26th 2013.
From the 1980s to 1990s, Chinese photography developed through the key stages of “New Documentary” photography, conceptual photography and experimental photography. This exhibition showcases the major styles and evolving facets of avant-garde photography from the period. The title “New Framework” denotes how these Chinese photographers used the medium to establish a new visual framework outside of the academia and institutions, and to create artworks that resonate with experimentalism.
“New Documentary" photography was one of the axies of Chinese photography in the 1980s. During this period, documentary photography was no longer limited to documenting reality, as artists transcended the social criticism in early documentary photography and set out to convey their subjectivities. The black and white photographic works of Gu Zheng, Han lei, Mo Yi and Zhang Haier fall into this category. The artists captured the cityscapes or the individual experience in the city on snapshots, as the images embody both documentation and echoes of conceptual photography.
In the mid-1990s, experimental art and experimental photography came to prominence. The photographic works from this period fuse such elements as installation, staged photography, performance to highlight the conceptual and experimental nature of the creation. The black and white and colour images of Ai Wei Wei, Hong Lei, Qiu Zhijie, Jiang Zhi, Zheng Guogu are representative works of this stream. The establishment of East Village in the 1990s was another key stimulus to experimental photography. The artists based in the East Village used the photographic medium to record and participate in performance art. East Village by RongRong is one of the major photographic works from this period.
Curator RongRong voyaged into experimental photography in the 1990s and was an active presence in the East Village, the cradle of Chinese experimental art. In the mid-1990s, RongRong co-founded the New Photo magazine, the first independent conceptual photography magazine in China, with Liu Zheng. New Photo published an eclectic selection of conceptual photographic works by artists who emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, including most of the works featured in this exhibition. With his wife and artistic partner inri, RongRong founded the Three Shadows Art Centre in 2007 for promoting the development of Chinese photography.
Image: © Ai Wei Wei, Blindspot Gallery
