我 母 親 - For my mother
by Ren Hang
Photographs: Ren Hang
Publisher: Hopper & Fuchs
64 pages
Year: 2019
ISBN: 9789464002003
Comments: Hardcover, 220 x 380 mm, English, used copy
Jet black hair, porcelain skin, bright red lips and fingernails; figures gazing intensely into the camera; young men and women posing acrobatically with bizarre props; animals and plants in the glaring light of the camera’s flash, situated in urban landscapes, private spaces, or in nature, among rice fields, lotus ponds, and cacti—Chinese artist Ren Hang’s photographs are painfully provocative, but also inward looking and dreamily surreal. His gender-queer compositions are explicitly erotic but never pornographic. Hang depicts the human body as an abstract form, often in idiosyncratic arrangements and perspectives, referencing and simultaneously overwriting well-known motifs and traditions from Western art. He combines iconic images of William Shakespeare’s dying Ophelia in a river surrounded by flowers; of Leda, daughter of a Greek king, and the Swan; and of female nudes seen from behind using a distinctive visual vocabulary that draws on abstraction, Surrealism, Dada, and both historic and contemporary photography. The artistic understanding revealed in his photographs is influenced by East Asian philosophy and, in contrast to Western art, does not endeavor to be original. His work instead continues a school tradition and strives for timelessness; for Hang, as for many Chinese artists, questions of authorship and of original versus copy only arise in confrontation with a Western understanding of art. The juxtaposition of these views gives rise to a new discourse on the forms and structures of collective and pictorial memory.
Ren Hang’s analog photographs use a playful, humorous visual language to relate the feelings, desires, fears, and loneliness of a young generation in China. His works stand as symbols of the youth’s rebellion against the conventions of a restrictive communist regime in which nudity and sexual freedom are subject to government censure and control even up to the present day. Most of the people portrayed are the artist’s friends, but they remain unnamed and anonymous, and the images bear neither title nor place nor date. Although carefully staged, they are infused with an element of fleetingness and evanescence that is often the result of the artist’s quick way of working. Ren Hang’s photographs are a rare ode to human beings, their bodies, sexuality, beauty, and vulnerability.
More books by Ren Hang
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The brightest light runs too fast (signed + print - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 1650 -
野生 (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
野生 (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Republic (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
June (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
April (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
May (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
March (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
July (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
August (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
野生 (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 1500 -
September (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Seafood Party
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Shanghai Visitors (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Son and Bitch (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 2200 -
Nude (last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 600 -
Room (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Physical Borderline
by Ren Hang
sold out -
November (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
October (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
New Love (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Ren Hang 2009-2011
by Ren Hang
Euro 1500
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Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com
我 母 親 - For my mother
by Ren Hang
Photographs: Ren Hang
Publisher: Hopper & Fuchs
64 pages
Year: 2019
ISBN: 9789464002003
Comments: Hardcover, 220 x 380 mm, English, used copy
Jet black hair, porcelain skin, bright red lips and fingernails; figures gazing intensely into the camera; young men and women posing acrobatically with bizarre props; animals and plants in the glaring light of the camera’s flash, situated in urban landscapes, private spaces, or in nature, among rice fields, lotus ponds, and cacti—Chinese artist Ren Hang’s photographs are painfully provocative, but also inward looking and dreamily surreal. His gender-queer compositions are explicitly erotic but never pornographic. Hang depicts the human body as an abstract form, often in idiosyncratic arrangements and perspectives, referencing and simultaneously overwriting well-known motifs and traditions from Western art. He combines iconic images of William Shakespeare’s dying Ophelia in a river surrounded by flowers; of Leda, daughter of a Greek king, and the Swan; and of female nudes seen from behind using a distinctive visual vocabulary that draws on abstraction, Surrealism, Dada, and both historic and contemporary photography. The artistic understanding revealed in his photographs is influenced by East Asian philosophy and, in contrast to Western art, does not endeavor to be original. His work instead continues a school tradition and strives for timelessness; for Hang, as for many Chinese artists, questions of authorship and of original versus copy only arise in confrontation with a Western understanding of art. The juxtaposition of these views gives rise to a new discourse on the forms and structures of collective and pictorial memory.
Ren Hang’s analog photographs use a playful, humorous visual language to relate the feelings, desires, fears, and loneliness of a young generation in China. His works stand as symbols of the youth’s rebellion against the conventions of a restrictive communist regime in which nudity and sexual freedom are subject to government censure and control even up to the present day. Most of the people portrayed are the artist’s friends, but they remain unnamed and anonymous, and the images bear neither title nor place nor date. Although carefully staged, they are infused with an element of fleetingness and evanescence that is often the result of the artist’s quick way of working. Ren Hang’s photographs are a rare ode to human beings, their bodies, sexuality, beauty, and vulnerability.
More books by Ren Hang
-
The brightest light runs too fast (signed + print - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 1650 -
野生 (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
野生 (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Republic (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
June (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
April (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
May (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
March (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
July (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
August (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
野生 (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 1500 -
September (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Seafood Party
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Shanghai Visitors (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Son and Bitch (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 2200 -
Nude (last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 600 -
Room (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Physical Borderline
by Ren Hang
sold out -
November (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
October (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
New Love (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Ren Hang 2009-2011
by Ren Hang
Euro 1500
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Gstettn - Snails
by Regina Anzenberger
Euro 25 -
Closed Garden - Paraiso Artist Edition (signed + prints - last...
by Emiliano Zúñiga Hernández
Euro 950 -
Roots & Waltz (signed)
by Regina Anzenberger
Euro 65 -
Beware of People who Dislike Cats (signed - last copies)
by Morganna Magee
Euro 75 -
Garden (Collector's Edition)
by Marta Zgierska & Mateusz Sarełło
Euro 450 -
Gstettn - The Illusion of Summer (last copies)
by Regina Anzenberger
Euro 29
more books tagged »body« | >> see all
-
RATIO
by Bram Van Stappen
Euro 60 -
Friction
by Margaret Lansink
Euro 99.70 69.79 -
Huésped
by Diego Moreno
Euro 60 -
SchauLust
by Alfons Walde
sold out -
Absentee
by Sayuri Ichida
Euro 94 -
Infra
by Rebecca Topakian
Euro 22
Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com
我 母 親 - For my mother
by Ren Hang
Photographs: Ren Hang
Publisher: Hopper & Fuchs
64 pages
Year: 2019
ISBN: 9789464002003
Comments: Hardcover, 220 x 380 mm, English, used copy
Jet black hair, porcelain skin, bright red lips and fingernails; figures gazing intensely into the camera; young men and women posing acrobatically with bizarre props; animals and plants in the glaring light of the camera’s flash, situated in urban landscapes, private spaces, or in nature, among rice fields, lotus ponds, and cacti—Chinese artist Ren Hang’s photographs are painfully provocative, but also inward looking and dreamily surreal. His gender-queer compositions are explicitly erotic but never pornographic. Hang depicts the human body as an abstract form, often in idiosyncratic arrangements and perspectives, referencing and simultaneously overwriting well-known motifs and traditions from Western art. He combines iconic images of William Shakespeare’s dying Ophelia in a river surrounded by flowers; of Leda, daughter of a Greek king, and the Swan; and of female nudes seen from behind using a distinctive visual vocabulary that draws on abstraction, Surrealism, Dada, and both historic and contemporary photography. The artistic understanding revealed in his photographs is influenced by East Asian philosophy and, in contrast to Western art, does not endeavor to be original. His work instead continues a school tradition and strives for timelessness; for Hang, as for many Chinese artists, questions of authorship and of original versus copy only arise in confrontation with a Western understanding of art. The juxtaposition of these views gives rise to a new discourse on the forms and structures of collective and pictorial memory.
Ren Hang’s analog photographs use a playful, humorous visual language to relate the feelings, desires, fears, and loneliness of a young generation in China. His works stand as symbols of the youth’s rebellion against the conventions of a restrictive communist regime in which nudity and sexual freedom are subject to government censure and control even up to the present day. Most of the people portrayed are the artist’s friends, but they remain unnamed and anonymous, and the images bear neither title nor place nor date. Although carefully staged, they are infused with an element of fleetingness and evanescence that is often the result of the artist’s quick way of working. Ren Hang’s photographs are a rare ode to human beings, their bodies, sexuality, beauty, and vulnerability.
More books by Ren Hang
-
The brightest light runs too fast (signed + print - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 1650 -
野生 (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
野生 (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Republic (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
June (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
April (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
May (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
March (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
July (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
August (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
野生 (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 1500 -
September (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Seafood Party
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Shanghai Visitors (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Son and Bitch (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 2200 -
Nude (last copy)
by Ren Hang
Euro 600 -
Room (signed - last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Physical Borderline
by Ren Hang
sold out -
November (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
October (last copy)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
New Love (signed)
by Ren Hang
sold out -
Ren Hang 2009-2011
by Ren Hang
Euro 1500
more books tagged »nature« | >> see all
-
Gstettn - Snails
by Regina Anzenberger
Euro 25 -
Closed Garden - Paraiso Artist Edition (signed + prints - last...
by Emiliano Zúñiga Hernández
Euro 950 -
Roots & Waltz (signed)
by Regina Anzenberger
Euro 65 -
Beware of People who Dislike Cats (signed - last copies)
by Morganna Magee
Euro 75 -
Garden (Collector's Edition)
by Marta Zgierska & Mateusz Sarełło
Euro 450 -
Gstettn - The Illusion of Summer (last copies)
by Regina Anzenberger
Euro 29
more books tagged »body« | >> see all
-
RATIO
by Bram Van Stappen
Euro 60 -
Friction
by Margaret Lansink
Euro 99.70 69.79 -
Huésped
by Diego Moreno
Euro 60 -
SchauLust
by Alfons Walde
sold out -
Absentee
by Sayuri Ichida
Euro 94 -
Infra
by Rebecca Topakian
Euro 22
Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com