My Mum/My Father
This joint solo exhibition entitled “My Mum/My Father” features the work of two Mainland Chinese photographic artists. Ren Hang’s work “My Mum” encapsulates the country’s subculture in his provocative personal photograph, whilst Li Lang’s interpretation entitled “My Father” documents photography within his most recent years. The contrasting showcase of Ren’s colourful and conceptually playful portraits compared to that of Li’s emotive documentations of the life of his late father, curates a reflective exhibition that shares and intriguing and experimental facets regarding the two photographic forms.
“My Mum” is a more light-hearted rendering of this ambiguity that underlines the portrayal of the self in personal photography. Posing with usual, inanimate objects, the artists mother become another subject while she retains her real-life identity within these fictionalised representations of her daily life. Compared to Li’s creative process, which was one of mourning, resurrecting, and safeguarding the life of a late parent against oblivion.
Exhibited within a large industrial warehouse, the work is printed and frame at a large scale, simplicity being key. The use of Hang’s colour compared to Lang’s monochrome pieces carefully dived the artist’s work, yet the underlying theme of parenthood and family dynamics can be seen as a similarity between the two. This is so something worth considering when curating a collaborative exhibition.
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