A window suddenly opens : contemporary photography in China Cover Image

Book

A window suddenly opens : contemporary photography in China / edited by Melissa Chiu and Betsy Johnson ; with contributions by Claire Roberts, Orville Schell, Karen Smith, Taliesin Thomas, Larry Warsh.

Chiu, Melissa, (editor.). Johnson, Betsy (Curator), (editor.). Roberts, Claire, 1959- (contributor.). Schell, Orville, (contributor.). Smith, Karen (Art historian), (contributor.). Warsh, Larry, (contributor.). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, (host institution,, issuing body.).

Summary:

"The past thirty years were dynamic, transformative decades in Chinese photography. Artists exposed to recent work from around the globe experimented with photography in newly conceptual and expressive ways, and their art from this period offers a portrait of a country at a moment of rapid urbanization, globalization, and cultural foment. A Window Suddenly Opens reveals the key role that photography has played in questioning and refashioning the aesthetic and social status quo of modern Chinese society for the past three decades. Alongside prescient works by Cao Fei, Lin Tianmiao, Rong Rong, Song Dong, Wang Qingsong, Zhang Huan, Zhang Peili, and many other artists, essays and interviews by scholars and curators explore the history of experimental photography in China and the artistic transformations of the digital age. The book also features texts written between 1994 and 2014 by Chinese artists, some published for the first time here in English, which offer essential insights into their ideas and experiences as they forged new creative paths."-- Page 4 of cover.

Record details

ISBN: 9780300269888
ISBN: 0300269889
Physical Description: ix, 225 pages (some folded) : illustrations (chiefly colour), portraits ; 29 cm
Publisher: Washington, DC : Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, [2023]
Distributor: New Haven ; Yale University Press
Copyright: ©2023

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Director's foreword / Melissa Chiu -- Collector's foreword / Larry Warsh -- Acknowledgments / Melissa Chiu and Betsy Johnson -- Beyond the limits of reality / Betsy Johnson -- A conversation about Chinese photography / Melissa Chiu with Orville Schell and Claire Roberts -- Grain to pixel: A story of photography in China / Karen Smith -- Between embodiment and evanescence: The post-photo paradigm / Taliesin Thomas -- Artist texts -- Diary extracts (1994-1997) / Rong Rong -- A piece of nothing (2007) / Zhang Huan -- Four notes (1994) / Ma Liuming -- About new photo (1996) / Rong Rong and Liu Zheng -- I only chose the "group portrait" (1997) / Zhuang Hui -- Wrapping and severing (1997) / Lin Tianmiao -- Standard family (1996-1997) / Wang Jinsong -- Why I do ink painting (2014) / Qiu Zhijie -- Statement on the my things series / Hong Hao -- About the communication series (2000) / Cang Xin -- The history of landscape (2006) / Huang Yan -- A few words on the photos (2002) / Hai Bo -- Street scene series texts (1998, 1999, 2001) / Chen Shaoxiong -- A garden home among the ruins and the future new life (2004) / Zhang Dali -- The age of satire -- on photographic works, in my own words (2004) / Wang Qingsong -- On the wall (2004) / Weng Fen -- China (2003) / Xing Danwen -- RMB City Manifesto (2009) / Cao Fei (SL Avatar: China Tracy)
Exhibitions Note:	Published in the occasion of the exhibition of the same title, held at Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture and Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, November 2022 to January 2024.