Description: The book features dream-space photo collages created by Xu Xiaowei. By combining visual representations of objects and places with ready-made images that randomly appear and disappear in contemporary Chinese society, the artist reinvents his memories. The artwork reflects the personal turmoil experienced in the face of rapid changes in Chinese society. Through non-linear and fragmentary stories that unfold in a dystopian fantasy world that is both pre-modern and post-industrial, the artist tries to convey this agitation. Using reconstructed photographs, the artist constructs a space of memory that lies somewhere between the tangible and the absurd.
Brief description: Dr Joshua Gong is a leading expert on contemporary Chinese art and chinoiserie. He taught at the University of Sussex from 2010 to 2018, then lectured at Shanghai Normal University. He was a recipient of the Young Scholar Grant, Tate Modern, 2015. His first monograph was nominated for the best art publication by the Award of Art China.
He has been working and publishing with and for various leading publishers and institutions, including in China: the Ministry of Culture, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, the Palace Museum, The Commercial Press, and the Chinese National Art Publishing House; and in the UK: Unicorn Publishing Group, the Art Newspaper and Oxford University Press. His book Iconography and Schemata: A Communicating History in Painting between China and the West, 1514-1885 is a landmark in the field. Recently he published three monographs Hsiao Chin and Punto: Mapping Post-War Avant-Garde (London: Unicorn), Challenging Leonardo da Vinci, An Alternative Art History (Beijing: CITIC Press Group) and Chinese Art Today: From 20th-Century Tradition to Contemporary Practice (London: Unicorn).Review Quotes: Through his dreamlike photographic collages, Xu Xiaowei brings together objects, places, and images in contemporary China to reconstruct a fragmented memory. His works convey the disorientation caused by the country's rapid transformations in a visual fiction with dystopian overtones. Through these reconstructed photographs, the artist crafts a suspended space between reality and absurdity, where intimate turmoil surfaces without explanation. Fisheye Magazine, France.
'Xiaowei creates the work in a bid to 'reinvent' his memories, reflecting the personal turmoil often experienced in the face of rapid changes in Chinese society. If you'd like a look at some unusual contemporary art photography, this book is certainly a great place to start.' Amateur Photographer. "From film and digital to AI-generated images, Xu Xiaowei has witnessed the transformation of photography technology firsthand. His works blend traditional symbols with futuristic imagery, exploring the paradox of societal development--tradition as the anchor and the future as the sail, both indispensable. He believes that the "irreplaceability" of photography is returning to humanity itself: empathy, emotional flow, and immediate perception are the core elements that machines cannot replicate." Visionaire China by Jessica and Zou Xunxing