Zhang Lanpo

 

The title is drawn from Zhang Lanpo's work Red Cliffs. Stasis and openness, the directed impressions from Zhang Lanpo's works in the past two years have evoked in me.

 

Stasis is the “sensory experience” while viewing. It’s as if, when I enlarge Zhang Lanpo’s images and attempt to delve into the details, I find myself pulled, constrained, and perspiring profusely from the intricacies within the images. I try to venture deeper into the vaguely discernible crevices, but my progress is hampered by the sense of stasis. Openness, on the other hand, is the aftertaste of viewing – a vast expanse that is hollowed out in my mind from my eyes, leading back to the light source within the frame – an aperture. Even when I step back one step at a time from the oversized prints hanging on the wall, retreating to the vast expanse of reality beyond the picture frame, there is still an urge to be absorbed into the blinding white void. What kind of openness awaits on the other side?

 

Stasis and openness unravel a myriad of mysteries surrounding history and human nature, revelation and concealment, death and eternalness (or conversely, oblivion). The latter also points to my ultimate fear, which has persisted over the years: the fear of no longer perceiving anything after both the physical and spiritual aspects of a person vanish, while time and the universe continue to exist in a state of “forever.” It's not so much a fear of death itself but a dread of the ensuing emptiness and void of absolute silence – a world that will keep on turning, but I will forever remain unable to perceive or experience it. This fear, to some extent, found concrete representation when I first encountered Zhang Lanpo’s works, while also providing a sense of solace because “the unknowable” is temporarily dissolved within his creations.

 

Zhang Lanpo’s works inject subtle yet potent illumination into the exploration of mysteries surrounding death and the afterlife. During a conversation we had, Zhang Lanpo expressed an understanding of my earlier mentioned ultimate fear, “A few years ago, I was misdiagnosed with a terminal illness due to tinnitus. Though this misunderstanding lasted only two days, during those 48 hours, I deeply experienced... everyone will eventually confront the ultimate fear, and ultimately face nothingness. Fortunately, when looking back from the endpoint, many things become clear at a glance. It is precisely because of the contrast with the void of the future that this life is reflected with radiance or enchantment.”

 

Within the cave, Zhang Lanpo carves through the profound void: segments of sculptures, stones, models, ashes, skeletal specimens, vascular nerves, pathological sections, and other concealed or taboo existences. He molds them into various symbolic representations of history’s buried remnants. The genesis of these symbols gradually unveils the pure darkness. In doing so, Zhang Lanpo strives to progressively push back “the ultimate fear”, allowing light to pierce through the dark canvases and create what he refers to as a “self-illumination” visual effect. In the originally pitch-black abyss, Zhang Lanpo excavates the “brightness at arm’s length” – “I stand and gaze closely, at the edge of darkness, life’s fleeting nature, with myriad golden rays.”

Zhang Lanpo, originally from Hunan Province, was born in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, in 1973. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1996 and master’s degree in 2005 from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Currently, he is a university art teacher living and working in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province. His works strive to reconstruct the panorama of life by continuously approaching and capturing the essence of death. In the realm of "eternal life", which is far more distant and extensive than the world of life, he explores the profound dilemma of human nature — a contradictory history of merit and fault, sin and punishment, humanity and divinity, cognition and judgment, concealment and revelation. It is these contradictions that continually attract him to engage in introspection and discovery. Zhang Lanpo’ s works have been exhibited in China Millennium Monument (Beijing), Liaoning Art Museum, Chengdu Times Art Museum, Hanshan Art Museum (Suzhou), Jupiter Art Museum, Zhejiang Art Museum, Guangdong Museum of Art, MoCA Guangzhou, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Gongwang Art Museum (Hangzhou), BIAS2020, Bangkok, Cheongju and Los Angelas.

 

Zhang and his works have received and been nominated for a range of awards including the 4th China Photography Book List: Annual Photography Book (2020); the 7th Annual Chinese Photography List (2020); the 8th Jinan International Photography Biennale Best Photographer Award (2020); Three Shadows Photography Awards: Media Award (2019); Gold Wing Bird Awards: Best Publication (2019); Chinese Cutting-Edge Contemporary Photography (2019); the Asian Pioneer Photographer Award nomination (2015); China's Top Ten Emerging Photographer Award (2014).

 

Zhang’s publication of personal works include Original Paper Printing: Selected Works of Zhang Lanpo (2019) and Chinese Contemporary Photography Catalogue Series: Volume Zhang Lanpo (2016). His works are collected by Guangdong Museum of Art, Zhejiang Art Museum, Lishui Photography Museum, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum and 53 Art Museum.

 

 

Born in 1989 in Deyang, Sichuan, He Bo is a practitioner of photographic image-based art, writer, educator, and curator. His academic journey propelled him towards a master’s degree in Photography from the Beijing Film Academy. He further enriched his learning by completing the coursework in the Master Photography & Society (MAPS) program at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) in the Netherlands.

 

He Bo's artistic practice mainly focus on the re-creation of ready-made images, the narrative relationship between images and texts, communication barriers caused by war, disaster and violence, the fiction in the archives and memory, and the function and effect of photography in the construction of histories and the operation of power relations, etc. Collaboration with different people and participation of his audience constitute an important part of He Bo's artistic practice. He is currently working on the topics related to memory and postmemory of Sichuan Earthquake of 2008.

 

Notably, he found himself shortlisted for the Artist-in-Residence program in the Verzasca Valley, Switzerland in 2022. He also garnered recognition as one of the special jurors’ picks for the LensCulture Exposure Awards in the Netherlands in 2020. He Bo also proved his talent by qualifying for the Foam Talent Call in the Netherlands in 2018 and securing the 9th Three Shadows Photography Award in 2017.

 

Notable accolades continued to follow as He Bo received the Excellent Exhibition Award at the Xishuangbanna Foto Festival in 2018 and Excellent Photographer Award at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in 2016 and 2018. Consequently, He Bo’s artistic works have been widely exhibited both abroad, such as in Amsterdam, The Hague, New York, London, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Locarno, Islamabad, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai, and at home, such as at the Lianzhou Foto Festival and the Jimei × Arles International Photo Festival.

 

Furthermore, He Bo has curated various photography exhibitions, including Healing in the Heart of Storm, the group exhibition with Gao Mingxi at the Cang Art Museum in Hangzhou in 2022. Among his accomplishments, He Bo also orchestrated the Graduation Season, a curated showcase highlighting the best works by national college photographers. This collection was also featured in the 27th National Photographic Art Exhibition in Weifang in 2019. He Bo also undertook the mantle of executive curator for significant exhibitions, such as the TOP20 2017 China Contemporary Photography Exhibition at the Zhejiang Art Museum in Hangzhou in 2017, and the Lost Visual Memory of China: The Retrospective of the Photographs of Yuan Yiping , an homage exhibition at the 14th Pingyao International Photography Festival in 2014.

 

He Bo’s website: hebo.photography