Artist
Curators
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Weng Fen, the place where cattle and sheep graze in our village has been developed into an industrial zone from The Vanishing Landscape series, 2021, inkjet print. Courtesy of the Artist.
Weng Fen, A fishing village near my home is built into a commercial complex from The Vanishing Landscape series, 2021, inkjet print. Courtesy of the Artist.
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The Vanishing Landscape features the work of Chinese conceptual photographic artist Weng Fen 翁奮. The exhibition will showcase his latest two series of absurd realism, The Vanishing Landscape and Learning to Live Better in this World.
Weng’s hometown, Dongjiao Town in Wenchang County, Hainan, has been developed into a large-scale satellite launch centre. The entire area is planned to be built into a new modern town. Reflecting on the complex psychological dilemma in balancing individual wants and community needs, the artist has turned his attention to the contradictions and conflicts brought about by the modernization of the island rural development to the land of traditional villages since 2007.
The series The Vanishing Landscape revolves around the tension between urban development and land occupation, rural land industrialization and farming, globalization and local economies, and economic planting and environmental destruction that have emerged during the process of Weng’s personal research and observation.
Learning to live better in this world is a response to the pandemic which began in January 2020. Weng and his family were isolated at home. During this period, the internet was flooded with chaotic and complicated information, which filled him with anxiety and helplessness. In order to maintain movement of his body and occupy his mind, the artist used his old golf putter and created a small golf ball from paper to imitate a golf swing. He recreated this complicated feeling in words, and the paper ball became the carrier for his resistance as he made paper balls and posters every day. This process of creation made him realize the essence of life: to live daily life to the fullest in this world.