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"
"Flowers Everywhere"
"Flowers Everywhere"
Judge's recommendation
The photographs of the sick woman carry an almost innocent sense of fearlessness. Using her body as a medium, she conveys something piercing, frenzied, distorted, and defiant. Eroticism is direct, joyful, yet also dark and pure.A girl under 18 years old who can express complex and rich perceptions through photos and effortlessly capture your attention—this is undoubtedly a talent.
—— Duan Yuting
“Six Chapters Toward Evening” by Chen Zhe
"Six Chapters Toward Evening" selected as
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
"Six Chapters Toward Evening" selected as
Judge's recommendation
The literariness of photography, or the relationship between photography and literature, is a path that Chen Zhe has been exploring over the years.Her new work, *Six Chapters Toward Evening*, attempts to depict the imagery of dusk using the languages of photography, literature, and painting.Whether it's the imagery itself or the integration of text and painting, both are handled exceptionally well, exuding remarkable wit.
— Yan You
“Boundless Realm” by Huang Zhenwei
“Timeless Space” Diana Mirra and Zayra No. 1
Artwork statement
"No Time Zone" is a mixed-media work composed of photography, sound samples, text, and more, created based on the structural blueprint of the Italian writer Italo Calvino's novel *Invisible Cities*.
“Timeless” uses large-format cameras to photograph everyday urban landscapes, attempting to challenge the inherent element of “time” within the essence of photography, creating a surreal visual representation of urban spaces devoid of a “time dimension.”In static images and sound samples, I used clues that defy clear temporal attribution, recombining and mixing objective visual and auditory materials to create potential "conflicts" and "contradictions." While intervening in established orders of things, I retained the logic of real landscapes, presenting the city in a modeled way. This approach attempts, on one hand, to question the "truth" of spatial viewing and perception, and on the other, to gaze upon the realized landscape of global capitalist reality.
Italo Calvino said in his lecture at Columbia University in New York on March 29, 1983: "In 'Invisible Cities,' people cannot find any recognizable cities.All cities are fictional, and each chapter should offer an opportunity for us to reflect on a particular city or on the concept of the city in general.
This book becomes like some imagined continents, where other literary works find their space; these are "elsewhere" continents, which, today, can almost be said no longer to exist—the whole world tends to become uniform.
These cities are a totality of many things; a totality of memories, a totality of desires, a totality of signs of language; as all books on economic history explain, cities are places of exchange, but these exchanges are not merely of goods, they are also exchanges of discourse, of desires, of records.”
“No-Temporal-Space” explores the blurred boundaries of urban identity and authenticity by interweaving multiple media materials, examining the possibilities of rearrangement through real evidence and literary elements, thereby approaching a hypothetical concept of “as if” and “fiction.” Through this multi-layered, direct spatial-geographical context construction, it projects landscapes and spaces into each individual’s “mental situation,” creating an experience and exploration of psychogeography.
About the artist
Huang Zhenwei, born in 1986 in Zhangzhou, Fujian, currently lives in Xiamen.He graduated successively from the Photography Department of the London College of Communication and the Photography Department of the Edinburgh College of Art, earning a master's degree.The works have participated in exhibitions such as the UK-China Design Festival Tour, the Three Shadows Photography Award Exhibition, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, the Shanghai Biennale "Zhongshan Park Project," the Singapore International Photography Festival, and the China Pavilion at the International Contemporary Art Exhibition in the German Northern Art District.Huang Zhenwei’s works explore interdisciplinary concepts and consciousness studies, focusing on contemporary urban identity and landscapes, creating photography and installations in various scales.
"Timeless Space" Ottavia and Elaina No. 2
"No-Timescape" Da Afemia and Zobeide No. 3
"No Time Zone" by Diomila and Zaira No. 3
"No Time Realm" by Diomila and Zaira No. 4
Judge's recommendation
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"
“Human Brain Project”_Noise Interference
"Human Brain Project" – Victim No. 10
Judge's recommendation
Yang?’s *The Human Brain Project* is a semi-directed creative work based on real materials. The photographer constructs hallucinatory scenes imagining oneself as a patient controlled by aliens, yet conveys the various inexplicable dilemmas and absurdities of real life.The author demonstrates a skillful and well-balanced command of photographic language, using highly saturated colors and carefully crafted lighting to successfully immerse the viewer in a dramatic atmosphere that is quirky, dangerous, and mildly violent.This is not an easy thing to accomplish.
—— Duan Yuting
“The 'Present View' Series by Wang Juyan”
"Present View"
Artwork statement
In 2011, I briefly stayed in Kunming. Aside from the campus buildings of Yunnan University, I also visited Mingfeng Mountain in the eastern part of the city.A Taoist site, but when I walked into the complex, countless elderly people gathered in the open space among the buildings on the mountain, singing revolutionary songs at the top of their lungs.It may seem utterly absurd, yet it also feels strangely familiar—after all, who hasn’t grown up under the influence of such collective thinking?At that moment, I didn’t feel even a trace of strangeness.The combination of history and the present, especially in China, often presents a poignant contrast of beauty.
"Present Sight" and "Present Sight: Continued" are constructed upon this contrast between historical and contemporary textual elements.From the sublime historical landscapes along the Silk Road in *Present Sight* to the suffering-like terrains of the Old Summer Palace in *Present Sight: Continuation*, the prominent uncertainty in the images reflects the conflict between the present and history.In “Present View: Initial,” the secluded mountain scenery returns to personal memory.The "Present View" trilogy is, for me, both an expression of personal memory and a re-examination of personal and historical texts.
Wittgenstein wrote in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus that "we make to ourselves pictures of facts," which is what I tried to express in the three parts of "Contemplation."Perhaps, this is also an interpretation and perspective on the phrase ‘present view.’
About the artist
Wang Juyan, born in 1993 in Beijing, currently works and lives in Beijing and London.
"Present View"
"Present View. Initial"
*Present View. Continued: XQ-008 XQ-009 and Nameless Landscapes*
"Present Sight: Continued — XQ-008, XQ-009, and Unnamed Landscapes"
Judge's recommendation
Historical landscapes that exist only in books, archives, or even people's imaginations have completely lost their former meaning in the real world.Wang Juyan deliberately uses a retro visual language to obscure these truths, creating an illusion, but finds it futile.And this way of viewing actually adds weight to the questioning.
——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"
"Life That Came to an Abrupt Halt"
*Life Abruptly Halted*
Judge's recommendation
Zou Biyu’s works carry a sense of empathy, a concern for people.His work records a disaster site, but it does not directly depict the disaster itself, nor does it simply convey sorrow, fear, or anger.These images are unexpectedly beautiful, poetic, and serene.This is a rare perspective, imbued with a sense of morality and humanity while also bearing a strong personal touch.
——Zhang Peili