SU JIEHAO

SU JIEHAO

THE STORM IN THE MORNING

CURATED BY LI JIE

Similar to other youngsters in China, the environment in which Su Jiehao grew up has rapidly urbanized. His early photographic works mainly explore concepts like self-recognition, cultural memory and belonging. Since he was born in the era of the one-child policy, autobiographical memory and perceptual experience play an important role in his artistic practice.

In his recent works, Su Jiehao returns to his personal experience —— exploring the intersection of perception, translation and representation. Besides the anxiety of individual cultural identity, the artist attempts to arouse a “higher awareness”, one kind of poetic feeling concerned with daily situations (life itself). Based on this kind of awareness, the road connecting his inner heart to the outside world can be found.

The Storm in the Morning (2017-2018), Su Jiehao’s latest work, is an autobiographic one. Images from different sources are integrated, blending digital, natural and cultural worlds. 14 fragments of memories, monologues as well as images of maps, films and paintings are interwoven, constituting an independent and interdependent comprehensive narrative. The poetic lens quietly blurs the boundary between space and time. In this work, Su Jiehao abstracts the subtle sense of belonging from personal memories. Meanwhile, this work also responds to the tradition of remembrance in Chinese ancient literature: the dialogue and connection can be established between experience and perception, languages and image as well as present and past.