fluktor -|||- study - office - newsletter September 03, 2005

ChinaDaily, 2005-08-29
National treasure
WANG SHANSHAN and ALFRED ROMANN

He has made a fortune as a photographer. Hai Bo rose from virtual anonymity to fame and is now one of China's most successful avant-garde artists.

His works now hang at major galleries in New York's Chelsea art district. Less than a decade ago, however, when he changed his career path to become a full-time artist, Hai himself was not sure whether photographs could be considered art.

Hai was 35 in 1997. He had graduated from the relatively unknown Jilin Art Academy and had been earning a living as a schoolteacher in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province.

Later that year, he quit his job and moved to suburban Beijing, where he rented a single-storey brick house."I only knew I wanted to be a professional artist. I didn't know what kind of art to make - I couldn't expect a great career if I went on to be a print maker or oil painter," he says.

He found himself faced with a lot of free time, the challenge of defining himself artistically and the pressure to make ends meet. Hai occasionally travelled back to Changchun.

"Every time I was back there, I saw changes. People got old, people died... I began to take pictures of my family and relatives to tell their stories to future generations," he says.

He ended up producing a series of well-received double images. Each piece includes an older photo from family albums, usually tiny shots taken between the 1950s and the mid-1970s. Hai took the second photograph in each set, with the subjects striking identical poses in both photos. The results are culturally rich "before and after" images.

His favourites are group portraits of people smiling directly at the lens.

The images are touching and record change. The subjects have experienced personal growth. They have enjoyed social and economic progress. They have also seen loss. They have lost their youthful energy and the people close to them. People in the group photographs who had died were rendered as blank spaces in Hai's photographs.

"I never expected the photos to be so successful. To me they were an emotional outlet."

During his first two years in Beijing, he did not take part in any exhibitions. He worked hard and showed his prints, oils and photos to anyone who was interested.

In 1999, he joined a group of artist friends from neighbouring villages and held an installation and photo exhibition titled "Back and Forth, Left and Right" in a suburban Beijing house.

"Fortunately, many foreign expats and local artists like us came to our show," he says.

Uli Sigg, the former ambassador of Switzerland, is an enthusiastic collector of contemporary Chinese art. He drove to the show and gave Hai a Contemporary Chinese Art Award.

The award changed Hai's financial situation and also exposed him to Chinese and foreign curators.

He has been invited to more than 30 exhibitions around the world since 2000, including the Third Shanghai Biennale in 2000 and the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001.

He was also involved in the exhibition "Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China," staged over the past two years at the International Centre of Photography in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Seattle Art Museum in Seattle.

The wide recognition has paid off and Hai now earns US$8,000 with a single click of the camera.

Both critics and collectors have praised his more recent works, which are also double images, but less posed than before. In 2000 Hai began to sort through old pictures, mainly of people in parks in Changchun, and captured people in the same settings.

The photos of the northern Chinese landscape are striking.

"I want to show that though China is booming and bubbling, people as individuals cannot avoid feeling lonely - both the old and the young are finding it hard to adapt to rapid changes in society, especially in my hometown in Northeast China," he says.

(China Daily 08/29/2005)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/29/content_472976.htm

__________________

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

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	September 03, 2005: [achtung! kunst] Photographer Hai Bo

	ChinaDaily, 2005-08-29 National treasure WANG SHANSHAN and ALFRED ROMANN He has made a fortune as a photographer. Hai Bo rose from virtual anonymity to fame and is now one of China's most successful avant-garde artists. His works now hang at major galleries in New York's Chelsea art district. Less than a decade ago, however, when he changed his career path to become a full-time artist, Hai himself was not sure whether photographs could be considered art. Hai was 35 in 1997. He had graduated from the relatively unknown Jilin Art Academy and had been earning a living as a schoolteacher in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province. Later that year, he quit his job and moved to suburban Beijing, where he rented a single-storey brick house."I only knew I wanted to be a professional artist. I didn't know what kind of art to make - I couldn't expect a great career if I went on to be a print maker or oil painter," he says. He found himself faced with a lot of free time, the challenge of defining himself artistically and the pressure to make ends meet. Hai occasionally travelled back to Changchun. "Every time I was back there, I saw changes. People got old, people died... I began to take pictures of my family and relatives to tell their stories to future generations," he says. He ended up producing a series of well-received double images. Each piece includes an older photo from family albums, usually tiny shots taken between the 1950s and the mid-1970s. Hai took the second photograph in each set, with the subjects striking identical poses in both photos. The results are culturally rich "before and after" images. His favourites are group portraits of people smiling directly at the lens. The images are touching and record change. The subjects have experienced personal growth. They have enjoyed social and economic progress. They have also seen loss. They have lost their youthful energy and the people close to them. People in the group photographs who had died were rendered as blank spaces in Hai's photographs. "I never expected the photos to be so successful. To me they were an emotional outlet." During his first two years in Beijing, he did not take part in any exhibitions. He worked hard and showed his prints, oils and photos to anyone who was interested. In 1999, he joined a group of artist friends from neighbouring villages and held an installation and photo exhibition titled "Back and Forth, Left and Right" in a suburban Beijing house. "Fortunately, many foreign expats and local artists like us came to our show," he says. Uli Sigg, the former ambassador of Switzerland, is an enthusiastic collector of contemporary Chinese art. He drove to the show and gave Hai a Contemporary Chinese Art Award. The award changed Hai's financial situation and also exposed him to Chinese and foreign curators. He has been invited to more than 30 exhibitions around the world since 2000, including the Third Shanghai Biennale in 2000 and the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. He was also involved in the exhibition "Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China," staged over the past two years at the International Centre of Photography in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Seattle Art Museum in Seattle. The wide recognition has paid off and Hai now earns US$8,000 with a single click of the camera. Both critics and collectors have praised his more recent works, which are also double images, but less posed than before. In 2000 Hai began to sort through old pictures, mainly of people in parks in Changchun, and captured people in the same settings. The photos of the northern Chinese landscape are striking. "I want to show that though China is booming and bubbling, people as individuals cannot avoid feeling lonely - both the old and the young are finding it hard to adapt to rapid changes in society, especially in my hometown in Northeast China," he says. (China Daily 08/29/2005) http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/29/content_472976.htm __________________ with kind regards, Matthias Arnold (Art-Eastasia list) http://www.chinaresource.org http://www.fluktor.de __________________________________________ An archive of this list as well as an subscribe/unsubscribe facility is available at: http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/art-eastasia.html For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to: http://www.fluktor.de/study/office/newsletter.htm