Most of us are bound to be moved by the photos taken by Ao Guoxing. The extreme statement originates from the history of photography initially: in 1870, photographic chemistry course set by Vogel, a chemist in TU Berlin, marks the beginning of the history of photography; while it is not until 1985 that photographic technology was established domestically. That is to say, when the west had already utilized photographic language proficiently into artistic creation, we had just begun.
In Lianzhou International Photography Exhibition 2013, the noted critic and curator, Mr. Fei Dawei said such words in the presentation speech to Ao Guoxing: “...we know that a long period history of black and white photography appears in the short history of photography and forms a set of distinctive aesthetics. The pity is that Chinese photography has been brought to the time of color photography and digital photography all of a sudden without corresponding complete practices in the field of black and white photography out of various reasons. Today, we are glad to see that The Ode of Happiness of Ao Guoxing with rigorous and strong characteristics is enough to prove Chinese photographers also possess comparable capability in this field.”
We are still talking about the history of photography. Let’s confirm again the practical significance of Ao Guoxing’s works: The aesthetics of Deadpan technique of Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher, together with the typology method influence many Chinese photographers, but it is rare to see someone like Ao Guoxing who can achieve rigor, objectivity and scientificalness in terms of both form and content as well as the endowment of new concept. However, Ao Guoxing names those photos after an extremely magnificent title, which eulogizes the depressed artificial scenery under the banner of happiness and the happiness is extraordinary. What does Ao Guoxing want to eulogize on earth? His shooting notes read: “my shooting is a terminal care of the amusement park...people come up with all sorts of strange things so as to seek excitement, enchantment and sublimation. Then, they are oblivious of themselves and feel blissful but cast aside and disappear after a temporal and short time...” What he eulogizes are people’s desires and the expense at which people achieve their desires. The eternity and perpetuity of spirit and material is almost the best wishes of all civilizations, but people tend to speed up the elimination of them in obtaining those desires. The sense of absurd brought by the explicitly existing thing returning to vanity usually confuses people a lot about their future.
The photos taken by Ao Guoxing reminds us to think: are we really happy in the affluent and extravagant China with excessive entertainment? It is usually the lonely ruins behind the prosperous ceremonies and noises.
-798 Photo Gallery
Image: © Ao Guoxing
Courtesy of the artist and 798 Photo Gallery
