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Acclaimed Chinese photographer’s work features at Gallery

A touring exhibition of two series of photographs by Xing Danwen, a contemporary photographer from Beijing, currently features at the Latrobe Regional Gallery in Morwell.

By Latrobe City Council - 14th March 2006 - Back to News

The exhibition of ‘duplication’ and ‘disCONNEXION’ has been organised by the Chinese Museum in Melbourne.

Latrobe Regional Gallery Director, Louise Tegart, said that as Australia comes to grips with globalisation and its relationship with China, Xing offers us her own take on her rapidly modernising and globalised homeland as its economic and social fabric is reformed.

"In the exhibition of the two series ‘duplication’ and ‘disCONNEXION’, the struggle to reconcile the allure of consumer culture, technology and modernisation can be seen. The tangled wires, circuit boards and broken cell phone casings in Xing's images reflect raw economics at work in China's Guangdong province - a thriving dumping ground for the world's obsolete electronics," Ms Tegart explained.

In explaining her need to portray a dark reality of 21st century technology and economics, Xing said that travelling between China and the United States has made her increasingly aware of the conflicts between modernity and tradition, dream and reality.

"I carefully choose, direct and intimate moments to portray the objects I find. The aesthetic quality of the imagery almost removes the objects from their social context. But I cannot forget that most of the e-trash I am photographing is shipped from the United States and dumped in the Guangdong Province where people make a meagre living recycling it," Xing said.

"While we rely extensively on high-tech devices for our modern life, I was nevertheless shocked when confronted with the piles of dead and deconstructed machines, cords, wires, chips and parts - all of them with traces of America on them. In my country, I have experienced the changes that have taken place under the influence of Western modernity. These changes, driven in large measure by the United States, have contributed to a powerful push for development in China. At the same time, they have led to an environmental and social nightmare in remote corners of the country."

Xing was born in 1967 in Xian, China. She studied at the Xian Academy of Fine Arts and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing before completing an MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her first photographic work was photographing the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and documenting the avant-garde art scene in Beijing throughout the 1990s.

Xing is a rising star of the Chinese art scene. She has exhibited in major Museums across the world, including the prestigious Whitney Biennale, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Sydney Biennale. Her work is held in collections including the Pompidou Centre (France), the Uli Sigg Collection (Switzerland), the International Center for Photography (USA) and Whitney Museum (USA).

The exhibition continues at the Latrobe Regional Gallery until 26 March.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: support@gippsland.com

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