Sven: Peter de Ru's Photographic Works

9 March - 6 April 2013

Curator: Mao Weidong

Assistant: Zhong Linchun

 

When leafing through Peter de Ru's catalog Sven, the photograph that makes the deepest impression features nothing more than a few pictures placed on a table; it is a picture of pictures. These pictures are very old, portraits made with early photographic processes and classic 1950s group photos, but we cannot see the new photos behind them. Time has stopped at that point. Although there is a clock on the table, the time has clearly stopped. The pictures solidify time, and that solidified time also exists outside of time through this photograph. The information carried in a photograph is inconsistent with the feelings and reflections of the viewer transmitted by the photograph. The motivations are completely different for different viewers. The viewer's feelings about a picture, whether good or bad, strong or weak, come from the photograph itself and do not exist outside the photograph. Pictures arouse emotion in viewers and produce a desire for further understanding.