Edward Burtynsky
dal 11/4/2006 al 17/6/2006
Segnalato da
11/4/2006
Edward Burtynsky
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton
Documenting China Contemporary Photography and Social Change
Documenting China Contemporary Photography and Social Change
Edward Burtynsky: The China Series
The large format color photography of internationally-acclaimed Canadian
photographer Edward Burtynsky is awe-inspiring. Exquisitely detailed and exactingly
rendered, these large scale (5 x 6 feet) photographs document modern day Chinese
industrialization. Drawing from his most recent trips to China, this exhibition
includes Burtynsky's images of industrial factory workers, the attempts at
recycling, and the abandoned manufacturing plants, showing the behind-the-scenes
working of the world we hardly see, even though we come into contact with its
results on a daily basis. The sheer numbers of seemingly identical workers and the
mass quantities of discarded parts create images that are at once arresting and
unsettling. Also included are images from the controversial Three Gorges Dam
project, by far the world's most extravagant and environmentally-altering
hydroelectric engineering feat. Burtynsky's images are meant, in the artist's own
words, "as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a
dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and feat." Edward Burtynsky:
The China Series was organized by the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art,
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Documenting China: Contemporary Photography and Social Change
Hailed by The New York Times as "profound" and "heroic," Documenting China presents
57 dramatic images by seven contemporary Chinese photographers. These raw
black-and-white and color photographs unveil the truth about China's internal
struggle - a battle between modern industrialism and the traditional, agrarian past
that has sustained the country for thousands of years. The work of these seven
photographers - Liu Xiaodi, Jiang Jian, Zhang Xinmin, Luo Yongjin, Zhou Hai, Lu
Yuanmin and Zhou Ming - offers an astonishing understanding of contemporary Asian
society, while revealing the modern essence of the most populous nation on earth
from an insider's point of view. The works tell the gritty, sometimes proud stories
of those still struggling to blend into the urban landscape without losing sight of
their old ways, and each photographer has a unique way of telling this story,
whether through quick snapshots of urban and rural life, or methodically- and
artistically-composed with as much emphasis placed on composition and color as on
subject matter and context. Documenting China: Contemporary Photography and Social
Change is organized by Bates College Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution
Traveling Exhibitions Service, and has been made possible through the generous
support of Crystal Cruises. A catalogue accompanies this exhibition.
Image: Jiang Jian, Zhang Qunzi and Her Two Daughters,
Mengin County, Henan, 1996
Boca Raton Museum of Art
501 Plaza Real, Mizner Park FL 33432 Boca Raton
Hours:
Tuesday-Thursday-Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Wednesday 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Mondays and Holidays Closed