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20 APRIL – 21 MAY 2016
Beetles+Huxley are pleased to announce the first UK solo exhibition of award-winning Chinese photographer, Zhang Kechun.
Zhang produces epic vistas that dwell on the significance of the landscape in modern Chinese national identity. His first series, The Yellow River, documents the effects of modernisation along the third longest river in Asia. The project took him on a journey along the river from the coastal flats of Shandong to the mountains of Qinghai on a fold-up bicycle, all the time carrying with him a large format Linhof camera.
Zhang’s second series, Between the Mountains and the Water, continued to explore the relationship between the people and land on which they live and work. Charming scenes include a poster of Chairman Mao attached to a rubber ring floating on a river, surrounded by a group of swimmers, and a gathering of people taking tea in amongst concrete ruins on the riverside.
Gallery director, Giles Huxley-Parlour says: “Zhang Kechun is one of a growing number of exciting Chinese photographers making their names known in Europe and the United States. His sublime views of the industrial wastelands consuming rural China are invested with both political and sociological pertinence. Whilst Zhang imbues the altered landscape of China with a tragic beauty, his photographs also are often witty, showing the frequently absurd scenarios in which the inhabitants of the river’s surroundings find themselves.”
