Zhou Jun – The Changing Mood of China
Ellen Kozakiewicz
Zhou Jun, Pheonic Ancient City, 2011, digital C-print, 120 x150 cm/ Image courtesy of the artist and Red Gate Gallery, Beijing
Historically the use of photography within China has been highly influenced by government authority. Since the early 1940’s the main purpose of photography was that of presenting China’s cultural developments in a positive and empowering manner. Only recently, with insurgencies of the 20th century, have artists within China been able to reflect upon the rapid changes brought about by modernisation and economic growth. Many artists within China have turned to Photomedia as a means to help explore the cultural changes that have transpired within their county, both past and present. Artists are able to ponder these changes with new eyes, in a time post communism, post Mao and post Tiananmen Square. Zhou Jun is an emerging Contemporary Chinese artist whose work explores, documents and comments on the continuing political and economical re-figuration of China. In particular, Jun has captured social and environmental fragmentations within Chinese culture as a result of urban development and industrialisation. Presenting his explorations in the form of large digital prints, Jun captures audience engagement with his artworks relatable yet dreamlike qualities.
Jun’s photography collectively expresses a narrative of the disregard for cultural preservation. He depicts China as a country with a continual thirst for innovation and advancement. A country with both feet striding towards the future, Jun argues that Chinas’ focus has disassociated itself from the past. His innovative imagery poses a problematic question; is the past important? Encouraged by the bold pops of red colour, an acute contrast to Jun’s black and white images, audiences are invited to construct their own personal answer to the question posed. Whether believed to represent political trauma, government control, traditional significance, communist ideologies or histories, viewers analyse Jun’s work and his use of red by drawing meaning from their own memories and beliefs, as the artists states:
“The three decades of development China is experiencing – building to a crescendo with the Olympics – are unparalleled in history. The colour red, which I use to highlight specific parts of the photograph, can elicit different responses in people from different countries or cultures – at times, it can even have opposite meanings for people. I want my work to be interpreted differently by people depending on their response to the symbolic meaning of red. In this sense, the work has the potential to reveal international perspectives to common subject matter.”
Jun uses large format film cameras to capture images of rural and industrialised Chinese landscapes, which contain building scaffolding and development sites. He then scans the negatives and digitally manipulates them, highlighting the areas containing construction materials in a dramatic red. His material practice combining new and old techniques produces an illusionary reality. Are these images of China or are we viewing a dreamlike reality of the future, a new and transformed China that has lost all ties to its traditional culture and environment? In his work Phoenix Ancient City, like the title suggests, Jun has presented a view of China as a country born to the future where regard for the past has been left behind. The ancient city sprawls across the images background. Our eyes are initially drawn to a large ancient structure encased by red scaffolding before they wander through the remaining composition where the natural environment has also been disturbed. Much like the environment, context has been transformed. A trail of red scaffolding and beams follows the river, winding into the horizon. It could be argued that this trail is evocative of China’s cultural direction towards continued economical development.
The works of Zhou Jun both captivate and engage visually through the striking contrast of red highlights upon black and white images. His artworks are both thought provoking and compelling, strengthened by “a yearning for the past”. Jun’s works suggest that as China took its first strides towards a new future, a blind eye was turned to the negative ramifications of such a potentially powerful endeavour.
