Journey to Three Shadows

Three Shadows Photography Art Center (www.threeshadows.cn/en/index_en.htm)

A while back I made a long journey by subway, bus and on foot to the Three Shadows Gallery in Caochangdi. The entrance to the compound is about a five minute walk from the two lane road that carries traffic into the northern suburbs of Beijing. Walking on the narrow road hearing nothing more than the gravel crunching under my feet and the birds chirping gave me a temporary respite from the noisy masses in 798 and the larger city center. It seemed that here was a space meant for reflection and art. I approached the trademark grooved brick buildings of the Three Shadows space ready for just about anything.

Yet I was surprised to be  greeted by the sight of workers pushing an electric car into the center courtyard when I passed through the front gate. From the signage displayed throughout the exhibition center and staff testing the PA system in the middle of one of the main galleries (!)  I quickly came to the painful realization that the center was in the midst of preparing for an event involving a car company. I endured throughout all the noise and lightshows to browse the work of 刘香成’s（Liu Heung Shing） photography from the beginning of the Open Door Movement.

Liu Heung Shing (trends.com.cn)

It was interesting to see that photographs telling the story of China’s transformation from socialist planned economy to a special state-sponsored brand of capitalism would be accompanied by the preparations for an event that was celebrating the arrival of a foreign car company. It functioned almost as an end-note to the photographs (the latest which was taken in the early 1980’s) to show just how far this country’s relation to art, capitalism and foreign influence has traveled from the stiff doctrine of the Mao era.

An image by Liu Heung Shing

The photographs were taken with a clarity of meaning that makes the viewer feel that they were meant to grace the pages of a newspaper or newsmagazine. Many captured the key moments and people from some of China’s most important events during the stormy period of reform in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Telling details such as the first billboard advertisement in Beijing (Golden Fish Colored Pencils, if you’re curious), gigantic portraits of Mao that had been taken down, coverage of the Star Artists Group fighting for their voice to be heard, etc. are photographed with the knowledge of their historic weight and journalistic importance. Yet several of the images style and composition transcended the single event to became something of art.

The photographs of figures in Beijing’s large public squares are examples of this. The use of a wide angle lens captured the massiveness of the environment without losing it’s relation to the subject. This delicate use of composition and perspective is truly a work of skill and has shown those important public areas in a new light. In the images the viewer can see how in China the individual is able to fight for dominance and balance with these huge architectural spaces built by empire or Communist party. Instead of being engulfed by the negative space the subject is supported by it, embraced in a way.

In all the trip to Three Shadows was worth it. I plan to routinely make a pilgrimage to the outskirts of town in order to check on their latest exhibitions and browse their collection of photographic books.

Read an interview given to Liu Heung Shing by ‘the Beijinger’ magazine here.

Tags: exhibit, photography, three shadows