Organizer: Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
Curator: Gu Zheng
Opening: 14:30, May 24, 2019
Duration: May 24 – June 23, 2019 (10:00-18:00 Closed on Mondays)
Location: Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (155A Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015)
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is delighted to present the Chen Dazhi solo exhibition: “Time Pleat”. All works exhibited fall into five parts – “Outside the Concretization,” “Interval,” “Outside the Parallel,” “Searching,” and “Memory of Tibet.” Generally-speaking, they display what Chen desires to pursue in terms of the natural landscape, human activity, and the spiritual world. For Chen, these aspects constitute his perception of the world and also his understanding of the world through the spiritual practice of photography.
The title Time Pleat evokes photography and the visualization of spirits across the dimensions of time and space. Chen’s ultimate aim is to dispel the barriers between image, medium, and spirit that arise from technology or culture and unify them. He presents the spiritual secrets hidden in the time pleat through the unfolding of realistic images, visualizing his own inherent spirit and subjectivity.
Visualization of the spirit — Chen Dazhi's photography
Gu Zheng
What attracted me first to Chen Dazhi’s photography was its unique, research-driven texture. His practice has been summed up as a “Linear System” by the photography critic Li Shufeng, a term Chen himself endorsed. It involves a very specific technique inspired by the famed Zone System most often associated with the American landscape photographer Ansel Adams, which laid out a process for achieving the desired levels of light and dark in an image. The Linear System, in comparison, is a technique derived from Chinese culture that carries the aura and charm of traditional Chinese ink wash painting. It carries a low-key sense of luxury and abundance. Natural scenes and humanistic landscapes presented in this style have been acclaimed by Chinese and foreign art critic circles.
Traditional ink wash painting techniques derived from the refined, accurate observations and intensive summation of the Chinese landscape by painters from across China’s long history and many regions. The Linear System takes ink wash as its starting point, presenting natural scenery in a considerate way. Ink wash techniques (namely a series of chapping methods) are replaced by Chen’s own unique lines, which honor the distinct character of the photographic medium without compromising the abundance and complexity of the object. The Linear System possesses a unique expressive force, combining concrete achievements in photography (a Western invention) with the inherent temperament of Chinese culture in a harmonious way.
And what an effect it is! It has attracted me so much that for a time I thought Chen was only interested in the superficial effects of pictures and mostly engaged in developing photographic techniques.
But this is not the case.
Just as the critic Duan Jun said that “landscape photography is Chen Dazhi's starting point, but not his destination” (From ILLUSION to PERCEPTION - A Selected Exhibition of Chen Dazhi's Photographs, 2016, P12), similarly, perhaps, we can say that development of photographic technique is Chen Dazhi's starting point, but not his terminus. In other words, it is a means to an end, not an end in itself – for Chen, he seeks a form of spiritual expression.
All works exhibited under the title Time Pleat fall into five parts – “Outside the Concretization,” “Interval,” “Outside the Parallel,” “Searching,” and “Memory of Tibet.” Generally-speaking, they display what Chen desires to pursue in terms of the natural landscape, human activity, and the spiritual world. For Chen, these aspects constitute his perception of the world and also his understanding of the world through the spiritual practice of photography. An irony of a photograph is that it is the best possible means for understanding a concrete reality but also may be the greatest obstacle in trying to reach a certain spiritual transcendence. Or does its transparent reflection offer an opportunity for spiritual sublimation?
If human activities and nature can be concretely confirmed by visual presentation of human activities and the external shapes of nature, concretizingpeople’s inner world remains a challenge. It requires an inherent subjectivity, a possibility this work and Chen’s technique explores. Any technique should result from the long-term consideration of the human spirit and find its reflection in the concrete medium. Only those sensitive to technique who do not defer to it can develop ones that display an intense spiritual state.
The title Time Pleat evokes photography and the visualization of spirits across the dimensions of time and space. Chen’s ultimate aim is to dispel the barriers between image, medium, and spirit that arise from technology or culture and unify them. He presents the spiritual secrets hidden in the time pleat through the unfolding of realistic images, visualizing his own inherent spirit and subjectivity.
If Adam’s Zone System strove to present exquisite descriptions of the stiff and steep natural scenery of the American West, Chen’s Linear System represents an affectionate eulogy for Chinese nature. If we consider that he shaped the Linear System primarily for landscape, we must think if it’s possible to apply it in other fields. Can it be used to reproduce other subjects? Indeed, all images in all five parts of this exhibition did come to fruition through the technique – it succeeded in expressing several subjects across the fields of mankind, nature, and spirit. The Linear System has survived the complicated demands and severe challenges of the world. The Linear System is a unique contribution to the task of explaining the world and spirit, and it will definitely become an important part of future photographic traditions.
In an era dominated by digital photography, what possibilities remain? How can we trace and identify the spiritual character of a photographer? Chen’s exploration serves as an important case that merits careful consideration for our analysis of the meaning and value of photography today.
About The Artist
Chen Dazhi was born in Rongcheng, Shandong Province, China in 1966. He received a Bachelor of Engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology and a master’s degree in journalism from Renmin University. Before starting his own business, he worked as a software engineer,a newspaper reporter and editor, the president of a newspaper office, and the president of an investment company. He began his career in photography in 2009.
Chen’s Linear System technique infuses the spirit of ink wash painting and Chinese culture into photography. His early experiments with the technique received great acclaim and led him to give full play to the Linear System and expand it to include a range of subject matter, giving his images a strong personal style and unique artistic appeal.