architecture by committee

http://www.southflorida.com/events/sfl-lichinaphotosnov03,0,5149968.story?coll=sfe-events-headlines

Chinese photographers capture homeland's explosive change in S. Florida exhibit

By Margo Harakas
Staff Writer
Posted November 3 2004


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Morning Scene
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Sad Eyes
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Concerto of the Work Site
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The accusing eyes catch you, fix you in your tracks even before you see the tears and the reflection of belching smokestacks in the baboon's eyes. The photo, Sad Eyes, by Chinese photographer Huang Chu Zhong, speaks not only of the new industrialized China, of the heavy hand of progress and its environmental sacrifices, but of China's new freedom, manifested even in the world of photography.


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What: "Chinese Photographer's Association 2004 International Photography Festival Exhibition"
Where: Mark K. Wheeler Gallery, Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, 1799 SE 17th St.
When: Through Nov. 23.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sundays and holidays. Free. For information call 954-463-3000.
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That, says David E. Durbak, chairman of photography at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, is "really an eye-opener."

Durbak is curator of the "Chinese Photographer's Association 2004 International Photography Festival Exhibition" running through Nov. 23 in the institute's Mark K. Wheeler Gallery.

Three years in the making, the show pairs the work of 60 Chinese photographers with prints by 60 members of the American Society of Media Photographers, South Florida Chapter.

The Chinese offerings, many being shown for the first time in the United States, are striking both in style and versatility, ranging from fashion to landscape to editorial. Taken together, they give a broad understanding of photography in today's China.

"They have a freedom not possible even five years ago," Durbak says of his Chinese counterparts.

Subjects such as SARS, protests and poverty -- "images we thought would not be acceptable" -- are now intimately and eagerly explored through the photographers' lenses.

Groundwork for the exhibition began in 2002 when Durbak, chapter president of the ASMP, met with CPA members in Washington, D.C., to discuss possible joint ventures between universities in Beijing and the Art Institute, as well as between the two professional associations.

In 2003, Durbak spoke at China's International Photography Festival Exhibition.

"I gave a lecture on the education process we use here and I showed examples of our students' work," he says. Discussions continued and as a result 60 works by members of ASMP were represented in China's 2004 exhibition, where Durbak spoke again. Twenty student images also appeared in a separate show at the Great Wall of China.

In return, the Art Institute got 60 photos winnowed from this year's China exhibition. "It's a wonderful selection," says Durbak, with the works illustrating not only finesse with the camera, but skill with computer photo editing as well.

Among the elements that immediately distinguish the Chinese works is the use of color. "Where Americans tend to see things in more subdued colors, they have a lot of saturated colors [in their prints]," says Durbak. Surprise touches of blue, red and yellow shimmer like tiny sparklers in the night.

Also, says Durbak, "Their images are very clean. Even the conceptual images are focused, sharp-edged, not blurred. There's a lot of detail and depth of field. There isn't a lot of moodiness."

Also instantly recognizable is the connection to the land.

"They have a lot of love for the land and concern about what is happening to the land," says Durbak, assessing the subject matter.

You see in the collection, for example, a reinterpretation of traditional themes as in Lao Auang Wen's mist-shrouded mountains, titled Morning Scene, or Wu Zong Qi's islands in a molten lake. The latter, titled Golden Dragon Plays in Water because of the serpentine track of the islands and the wake of the tiny boat, once again utilizes the favorite colors of red and yellow, this time mixed to form a pool of searing orange.

The urban scenes carry a different message.

The Last Old Street, shot from high above, tile roofs forming a jagged framework, stands as a metaphor for the massive redevelopment overtaking modern China. On the narrow stone street far below, pedestrians move from the bottom of the frame to the top, as though single-mindedly escaping a doomed city. Except for an occasional touch of color, Ma Wethua's photo is predominantly gray.

Likewise Huang Baofeng's Concerto of the Work Site. A grid work of gray and black, resembling a massive chicken-wire-like enclosure, consumes the frame and suffocates the viewer. The only light is in the blue, green, yellow and red of the workers' clothing. In various poses, they form a single beaded band on the high-rise, running top to bottom.

Both are statements on a disappearing China, a loss of cultural heritage, especially visible in the ancient capital of Beijing. Beijing's plan, says Durbak, "is to tear down the old and replace it with the new before the 2008 Olympics."

The historic structures, he laments, are giving way to "the most utilitarian architecture. To me, it's a perfect example of communist architecture, which is architecture by committee," says Durbak.

The feng shui of the past, "where everything had a purpose and meaning and relationship, is being replaced by ugly buildings that are not inspiring at all."

Lest it all sound too serious, know there is also lightness and humor in the exhibition, as in Tang Sheng's flying fish, three fish falling into a porcelain bowl. Titled Jumping, it's a wonderful study in textures: a shiny porcelain bowl atop a rough stone slab, supported by a lacquered-wood counter.

"We're hoping," Durbak says of the exhibition, "this will become a yearly event."

He is also hoping it paves the way for a new joint venture, "an exchange of students and faculties [between China and the Art Institute] that will lead to a joint diploma."


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