UMBRELLA

This is an album of photos about space. Its attempts to explain some thoughts about memory and individual existence.

In the past two years, I have been traveling around the borders and corners of Beijing on weekends, looking for places where citizens are few. Originally, they were nothing but my photographing spots, but as time goes by, I have often found myself gazing at space for long unconsciously while standing in a wilderness or an abandoned building. I am feeling the change in space.

It is very different from the space in my daily life. Desolate and ruined as they are, they are closely related to my memories, giving me an illusion that I get rid of the time restriction and into a wonderful state of “being here yet not here”.

Since I grew up in this bustling city, I have been fortunate to witness its crazy growth, from childhood courtyards and bungalows to high-rise buildings. The space keeps unchanged, but everything around grows strange to me. I am not sure if the childhood memory is still clear now, but the first memory of the summer days remains. I stepped out of the yard, walked across the river, and saw my friends running with joy on a weedy land and the blue-and-white checkered sheets were hung in front of the house afar.

For many years, I cannot help but doubt whether childhood memories are true, whether there was a real river or a wilderness. Until one day, I came to a long-abandoned factory. Looking at these ruined walls, I suddenly realized that those memories are true. They were all here once, but now only some pieces remain. 

At the same time, when things that never occurred in our memories, or a space strange to us come into our eyes, it seems as if we could see its past prosperity and its hustle and bustle. Memories are forged and the space in the past appears.

As an essential part of the album, the umbrella is a symbol of the independent space, a link between the past and the modern, and a tool that bring time to a standstill.

The umbrella is a barrier against the light and rain. Meanwhile it separates the space. A person or some people under the umbrella are in a smaller independent space of the surroundings. This space gives the individual a sense of security and the opportunity to think independently. Although this independence is inadvertently forced and does not last long, individuals might be aware of it and even need it.

In a usual space strange to our memories, a smaller, independent space and a naked body are in a paradoxical harmony. When the original order is certainly broken, will the individual be highlighted?