Living Shrines of Uyghur China. Ross's work broadens our understanding of an understudied region at one of the world's greatest cultural crossroads.
Curated by Beth Citron
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is China’s largest province. It came under Chinese rule in 1949. With few exceptions, artists and foreign researchers have been denied meaningful access to the rural areas in Xinjiang. Ross's close working relationships with a Uyghur anthropologist and a French historian focusing on Central Asian Islam have guided her more than eight-year exploration in the region. The extensive body of work from which this exhibition draws is rare in that it captures a time and place that is rapidly modernizing and transforming, as Xinjiang is now China’s largest source of untapped natural gas, oil, and minerals.
Ross’s work broadens our understanding of an understudied region at one of the world’s greatest cultural crossroads. At the same time, the conceptual and aesthetic dimensions of Ross’s photographs speak to the visual beauty, visceral ardency, and sacred gravity of these sites. The depth of Ross’s work will be enhanced by a book, Living Shrines of Uyghur China, to be released by Monacelli Press at the time the exhibition opens.
This exhibition is supported, in part, by Peter Hutchings and Martha Wolfgang
For more information, please contact:
Anne-Marie Nolin, Head of Communications, 212.620.5000 x276,
amnolin@rmanyc.org
Talia Shulze, Assistant Manager of Media Relations, 212.620.5000 x335,
tshulze@rmanyc.org
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street 212 - New York