Synched/Non-Synched | Photography by Miao Xiaochun ( de )
Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin | Beijing, 2006
Cultural memory, as understood by Miao Xiaochun (born 1964), knows hardly any temporary or geographical borders. His photography thus forges links between early imperial China and the urban hustle and bustle of today’s Chinese metropolises. Past cultural achievements become an integral part of contemporary art.
A five-year stay in Germany (1995–99) as a student caused Miao Xiaochun to become a stranger in two respects: in the alien culture on the one hand, and then – back in Beijing – in his own country as well. Miao’s alter ego in the shape of a classical Confucian scholar thus became the returning protagonist of his photographs. According to Miao, "intellectuals and artists had considerable influence when it came to questions of social relevance in Han, Tang and Song dynasty China (206 B.C. to A.D. 1279). During the Tang dynasty, there was a great deal of exchange between the various cultures and religions. I hope for a return to this state of affairs in present-day China."
Whereas the black-and-white photograph As a Guest of a German Family (1999) shows the scholar silent, but in the midst of a group sharing a meal, in Propaganda and Advertise (2001) he appears as an isolated foreign element in a Chinese shopping street dominated by advertising.
Since 2002, Miao Xiaochun has been working with digital colour technology. His large-format photographs, incorporating numerous perspectives, are often montages of several dozen single shots. In formal terms, picking up the perspective of traditional landscape painting, making it possible to contour the background of the picture clearly, while shrinking details in the foreground so that they do not cover relevant details in the middle ground. Central perspective, which would assign a clear and secure standpoint to the beholder, is refused. Photography advances to become a medium equivalent to painting, and the reality depicted becomes a subjectively refracted statement.
Transmission (2002) uses this patchwork technique to illustrate the simultaneous presence of a wide spectrum of worldviews in today’s China. In the foreground, we see the aforementioned scholar looking at the water, lost in thought, whereas in the right corner we see a young girl, dressed fashionably, mesmerized by the display of her mobile telephone. Diametrically opposed to the contemplative mood of the scholar, two children chase each other down an alley with water guns. While Miao’s alter ego is a figure from the heyday of Confucianism, the clearly outlined church in the background bears witness to the coexistence of Christian values. The standing figures, as well as those walking in different directions, lend an almost musical dramaturgy to the "photographic painting".
The art historical dimension of Miao’s works becomes increasingly clear in the later works. After taking leave of his alter ego in 2004, turning his attention to large landscapes, as he does in Orbit (2005), the works of the Last Judgement series (2006) are on an entirely virtual level. If Miao was interested in questions of perspective in his early works, these have now become the theme of his works. Miao reconstructs the highly-dramatic scenes of Michelangelo’s eponymous fresco with a 3D figure modelled on his own body, developed and multiplied using computer software. "Books about European masterworks were already in circulation in China by the late 1970s," Miao explains. "Michelangelo’s fresco fascinated me then, and continues to fascinate me now, not only on an artistic level, but also because of the fundamental existential issues that this vision of the Last Judgement raises. These revolve around the power of Him who judges, the impotence of the one being judged, and the question that concerns us all: what happens after we die? As an artist, I was also tempted by the idea of extending Michelangelo’s work into cyberspace. His two-dimensional figures are transformed into virtual sculptures as I represent the scenes from the back or the side, for example. Inevitably, these technical interventions alter the work’s meaning. Other figures are suddenly at the centre of events, and so on..."
. Computer simulations enable the artist to answer these questions in virtual space. Art thus becomes a medium that transgresses borders in numerous ways.
First published: Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin | Beijing
Translation: Brian Currid
