Yesterday (January 10), the initial selection phase of the 2015 China Rising Photography Award by 57yx came to an end. The jury has ultimately selected six photographers. Their six series of works have earned them a place as finalists in this year's Rising Photography Award, namely:
"Flowers Everywhere" by Bingnv
"Six Chapters at Dusk" by Chen Zhe
"Timeless Realm" by Huang Zhenwei
"Human Brain Project" by Yang?
"Contemplation Series" by Wang Juyan
"Life Abruptly Halted" by Zou Biyu
The six shortlisted works will be featured in an exhibition curated by contemporary art critic and curator Mr. Fei Dawei. The exhibition will open on January 24, 2016, on the top floor of the Shanghai Sheraton Three on the Bund in the "Anxin Trust · The Aesthetic Space." Meanwhile, after the final selection by the jury, the Grand Prize of the 2015 China Rising Photography Award by 57yx will be announced on the evening of January 24.
Below is an introduction to the six shortlisted works and their authors in this year's Rising Photography Award:
“‘Flowers Everywhere’ by Bingnv”
"Flowers Everywhere"
Artist Statement
I photograph almost everything, with numerous projects underway, yet I’m in no rush to complete them. I enjoy collecting them in an unplanned, spontaneous way.
The world is strange and beautiful, yet also cruel. Humanity creates balance, yet also seeks to destroy it.
These are photos full of mixed emotions.
When photos with different starting points, themes, and styles are mixed together, we lose our ability to evaluate them.
A photo is just a photo. A photo will always be just a photo.
About the Artist
Bingnu, from Guiyang, Guizhou, born in 1998.
"Flowers Everywhere"
"Flowers Everywhere"
《遍地奇花》 ┎∨?/span>
《遍地奇花》 ┎∨?/p>
评委推荐语
病女的照片中有一种近乎天真的肆无忌惮，她用身体做载体，传达着某种刺痛、癫狂、扭曲和抗拒，情色是直接的、欢快的，也是黑暗的、纯粹的。一个不足18岁的女孩，可以用照片表达出复杂丰富的感知并用照片轻而易举地抓住你，这不得不说是一种才华。
――段煜婷
“《向晚六章》 陈哲”
《向晚六章》选作 ┏抡芗/p>
Work Statement
"Six Chapters Toward Evening" (2012–ongoing) is a thematic journey undertaken in an attempt to understand dusk. The artist seeks to channel her longstanding fascination with twilight into stylistic experiments rooted in literature and photography. Composed in chapters, the series attempts to develop images of dusk through six slices — "Heterogeneous Time," "Unease at Dusk," "Cocoon of Red," "Between Face and Face," "Two Kinds of Light," and "Erebus" — exploring how, in an everyday context, dusk digests people and is in turn digested by them.
"The process by which the day fades and night comes is the most mysterious thing. It causes markings to suddenly appear in the sky, filled with urgency and uncertainty. No one can predict the form any given night will take. If I could find a language to recreate those phenomena — so unstable and yet so difficult to describe; if I had the ability to explain to others the stages and sequence of events that occur in a unique moment that will never happen the same way again, then, as I thought at the time — I would be able to uncover the deepest secrets of my craft in one breath, I would receive revelation in a fleeting daydream, revelations from the forces that battle silently within me all day long." (Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques) (The works submitted for this exhibition are selected chapters from the first three parts of "Six Chapters Toward Evening.")
About the Artist
Chen Zhe, born in 1989 in Beijing, currently lives and works in the city. She graduated in 2011 from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles with a Bachelor’s degree in Photography and Imaging. Her work is held in the collections of art institutions and private collectors, and has been widely exhibited both domestically and internationally.
Chen Zhe’s early practice began with acts of self-destruction as a form of spiritual baptism, using photography and writing to explore the inner otherworlds of herself and others. Her autobiographical work "Bearable" and its follow-up "The Bees" won the Three Shadows Photography Award in 2011, the New Photography Award at the Lianzhou Foto Festival, and the Inge Morath Award granted by the Magnum Foundation, respectively.
In her new work, "Six Chapters Toward Evening," Chen Zhe takes dusk as her theme, continuing her exploration of medium language. By leveraging the interplay between image and text, she attempts to "create layers among existing things, thereby generating an ambiguous place." Here, the consciousness of dusk can be preserved as intact as possible.
Selected Works from "Six Chapters Toward Evening"
Selection from "Six Chapters Toward Evening"
"Six Chapters Toward Evening" selected works
《向晚六章》选作 ┏抡芗/span>
评委推荐语
摄影的文学性，或者摄影与文学的关系，是陈哲这些年内一直探索的路径。她的新作《向晚六章》便试图用摄影、文学以及绘画的语言去描绘黄昏这一意象。无论是影像本身，还是文字与绘画的介入，都处理得颇为出色，显得灵气十足。
――言由
“《无时境》 黄臻伟”
《无时境》迪奥米拉与扎伊拉no.1 ┗普槲凹/p>
作品陈述
“无时境”是根据意大利作家伊塔洛・卡尔维诺的作品《看不见的城市》为结构蓝本创作的，由摄影、声音采样、文本等组成的综合媒介作品。
“无时境”使用大画幅相机对城市日常景观进行拍摄，尝试挑战“时间”这个在摄影本体里的既定元素，创造一种失去“时间维度”状态下的城市空间的超现实视觉呈现。我在静态影像和声音采样里运用了难以判断时间属性的线索，将客观性的视觉和听觉材料重组混合以制造潜在的“冲突”与“矛盾” ，在对既定的事物秩序介入干预的同时保留真实景观的逻辑，将城市用模型化的方式呈现，试图一方面指向对空间观看和感知的“真实”的质疑，在另一方面指向对全球化资本主义现实景观的凝视。
卡尔维诺在1983年3月29日的纽约哥伦比亚大学讲座中说：“在《看不见的城市》里人们找不到能认得出的城市。所有的城市都是虚构，每个章节都应提供机会，让我们对某个城市或泛指意义上的城市进行反思。
这部书变得就像是一些想象出来的大陆，在这里，另一些文学作品找到它们的空间；这是些“别处”的大陆，在今天，“别处”可以说已经不再存在了，整个世界趋向于变得一致。
这些城市是众多事物的一个整体；记忆的整体，欲望的整体，一种言语的符号的整体；正如所有的经济史书籍所解释的，城市是一些交换的地点，但这些交换并不仅仅是货物的交换，它们还是话语的交换，欲望的交换，记录的交换。”
“无时境”尝试在多种媒介材料的交错作用下，通过真实证据性和文学性的环绕、重组的可能性和思考，使对城市的身份属性和真实性判断模糊失效，去接近一种“仿佛”和“虚构”的假设性概念，随着这种多层面直接性的空间地理语境建构，将景观和空间投射到每个个体的“精神的情境”中，产生一种心理地理学的体验和探索。
关于作者
黄臻伟，1986年出生于福建漳州，现居厦门。他先后毕业于伦敦传媒学院摄影系和爱丁堡艺术学院摄影系，获硕士学位。作品曾参加英中设计节巡展，三影堂摄影奖展览，平遥国际摄影节，上海双年展“中山公园计划”，新加坡国际摄影节，德国北部艺术区国际当代艺术大展中国馆等展览。黄臻伟的作品尝试跨学科的概念和意识研究，关注当代城市身份与景观，进行不同规模的摄影与装置创作。
《无时境》奥塔维亚与伊莱那no.2 ┗普槲凹/p>
《无时境》达欧菲米亚与佐贝伊德no.3 ┗普槲凹/p>
《无时境》迪奥米拉与扎伊拉no.3 ┗普槲凹/span>
《无时境》迪奥米拉与扎伊拉no.4 ┗普槲凹/p>
评委推荐语
Huang Zhenwei's works attempt to strip away the "time" element from images. As a result, he has created a series of scenes that are neither night nor day; neither lit by artificial light nor natural illumination. The indescribable feeling formed between the uncertain play of light and color and the sharply defined buildings draws people into the heart of a cold landscape, where they can experience and interpret its warmth.
――Zhang Peili
"Human Brain Project, Yang?"
Human Brain Project – Deliberate Collision Setup
Statement of Work
The world of “targeted individuals” resembles science fiction; it is filled with technology, miracles, machinery, and even androids. Unlike advocates of cultural movements such as Italian Futurism or Afrofuturism, these individuals encounter “futurism” in a different way—for them, these supernatural phenomena are not conceptual but their lived reality. Is technology progress or regression? Are we pursuing the virtual or the real? Do we live in conspiracy theories or Eden? *The Human Brain Project* portrays this group of questioners: fringe individuals who claim to have their brains controlled remotely by satellites. This global phenomenon is currently categorized within the realm of psychiatric disorders, yet they devote their lives to proving that they are test subjects subjected to harm—not the mentally ill.
These images capture fragments of their extraordinary lives. Since the experiences described by the victims occur in the brain rather than in tangible, photographable forms, the work employs long exposure and flashlight illumination to simulate the alienated world they perceive and to reflect their psychological state. When you walk down the street and see an ordinary building, or hear the sharp screech of a car braking, you might suddenly sense an indescribable atmosphere of strangeness. And that atmosphere is precisely the world they experience: buildings enveloped in electromagnetic radiation, spies hiding among traffic. *The Human Brain Project* does not aim to prove the validity of brain control claims, but instead, like documenting a religious ritual, creates a heterotopia that belongs to the targeted individuals. There, we come to understand how the ideology of a community and its corresponding lexicon are constructed, and contemplate the concept of alienation from a broader perspective.
About the Artist
Yang ?, born in 1991 in Mianyang, Sichuan, currently lives in Sichuan.
*The Human Brain Project_ Her Prophecy*
"Human Brain Project" _ "Virus Phone"
《人类脑计划》_噪音干扰 ┭??/span>
《人类脑计划》_“受害者”10号 ┭??/p>
评委推荐语
阳?的《人类脑计划》是一组基于真实素材的半导演创作作品，摄影师通过构思、模拟怀疑自己被外星人所控制的臆想症患者的臆想图景，传达的却是来自现实生存中的种种莫名困境和荒谬。作者对摄影语言的把握，自如而恰到好处，用高饱和度的色彩以及精心营造的光线，成功地将观者带入了某种古怪、危险和轻暴力的戏剧化氛围中。这并不是一件容易的事。
――段煜婷
“《现观》系列 王居延”
《现观》 ┩蹙友蛹/p>
作品陈述
2011年我短暂在昆明停留，除了云南大学校舍外，还去了城东的鸣凤山。一个道教场所，但当我走进建筑群，无数老年人聚集在山上建筑之间的空场，高唱革命歌曲。这似乎是大荒谬，但又似乎让人觉得无比熟悉，毕竟又有谁不是在这种集体思维的经验中成长的。在那一刻，我不觉得有一丝奇异。历史和当下的结合，尤其在中国，时常有一种悲壮的比对之美。
《现观》与《现观・续》就建构于这种历史与现实的文本对比中。从《现观》丝绸之路上崇高的历史风景到《现观・续》中圆明园受难般的地景，图像上突出的不确定性对应的是当下与历史的冲突。而《现观.初》中隐居式的山间静景，又回归个人记忆。《现观》三部，对我来说既是个人记忆般的表达，同时也是个人与历史文本的重新观看。
维特根斯坦在逻辑哲学论中写到“我们为自己构造事实的图像”，这就是我在《现观》三部分中所尝试表达的。也许，这也是对现观二字的一种解读和观看。
关于作者
王居延，1993年生于北京，现工作生活在北京，伦敦。
《现观》 ┩蹙友蛹/p>
《现观.初》 ┩蹙友蛹/span>
《现观.续 ：XQ－008 XQ－009与无名地景》 ┩蹙友蛹/span>
《现观.续 ：XQ－008 XQ－009与无名地景》 ┩蹙友蛹/p>
评委推荐语
仅存在于书籍档案甚至人们想象中的历史景观，在现实世界中已经完全失去了曾经的意味。王居延刻意以复古的影像语言去遮盖这些真相，制造一种假象，但却发现是徒劳的。而这样的观看方式反而增加了诘问的力度。
――Yan You
“‘Life That Came to an Abrupt Halt’ by Zou Buyu”
“Life That Came to an Abrupt Halt”
Statement of Work
On the evening of August 12, two explosions turned the residents of Hai Gang Cheng in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area into overnight homeless. The blasts, equivalent to nearly 21 tons of TNT, destroyed not only lives, homes, and vehicles but also the faith in many people’s hearts. Buildings that no longer lit up at night have become monuments, and a closer look inside reveals how fragile everything in life truly is.
About the Author
Zou Biyu, born in 1985 in Guilin, Guangxi, is a photographer for Sina.com.
"Life Abruptly Halted"
"Life Comes to an Abrupt Halt"
《戛然而止的生活》 ┳掼涤罴/span>
《戛然而止的生活》 ┳掼涤罴/p>
评委推荐语
邹璧宇的作品有一种情怀，一种对于人的关怀。他的作品纪录了一个灾难现场，但并没有直白地体现灾难本身，也没有简单地表达忧伤，恐惧抑或是愤怒。这些画面出人意外地优美、诗意和冷静。这是一种难得的观察角度，包含着道德和人性的精神，同时又有很强的个人特点。
――张培力