Mois de la Photo « Sarah McNeill’s Weblog

Mois de la Photo

Mois de la Photo…

Perhaps Cote-des-Neiges being across and behind the vast flanks of Mont Royal has its benefits, as a Sunday afternoon allowed me to spend time alone amidst the striking, clean composed lines of Shao Yinong & Mu Chen. So as not to get lost, and for fear of being incarcerated for violating copyright with my camera in a photo exhibit, I proceeded to find a delightfully uncontroversial picture in the elevator, tucked away beside the entrance of Maison de la Culture de Cote-des-Neiges, next to the constant flow of library visitors.

After spending last Thursday perusing the various vernissage events between Darling Foundry, Parisian Laundry, and the damaged bus with holographic images of near death experiences, I decided to wander through a part of the world I travelled to this past summer, and enjoy the still speech of carefully delineated and well balanced still photographs taken in China.

The third floor was beautifully lit by a wall of windows screened with light grey blinds. Along the right hand wall, two series of nine images, portraits in the dark of night, lit by bright white light. The two series entitled Fuxi Fuxi 1, eight be-headed stone statues of traditional guardians or laozhe, and Fuxi Fuxi 3, a series of mythical animal guardians, seated, lying, protecting from imminent attack, their etched stone sides starkly contrasting the dark night around them. These two series, made just last year, were positioned across from 7 still images of buildings, silent memories of structural eras.

Most striking is the photographer’s eye, which is the combined effort of this couple’s artistic endeavours, using the classical form of perspective drawings to draw the viewer inevitably into the center of the image, a firm geometric space. Since the gallery attendant was sitting watchfully behind the desk on the third floor, I did not attempt to take a photograph under her surveillance. Perhaps the most striking of these architectural photographs was one entitled Haixinsha, Guangzhou, China, January 2005. Straight down the middle, a still grey canal, flanked by the uniformly rectangular structures of modern high-rises to the right, and the long single floored traditional wharf house with white star shaped window lattices on the left. The monotone pallet dictated by the pervading smog of pollution.

Having checked the perspective of security cameras on the second floor, I proceeded down to a room, without natural source of light, but well lit with studio lights, and a series of nine theater/gathering halls, photographed in various states of destruction and opulent red adornment, silent testimonies of lost cultural heritage, and charred memories of artistic expression.

Each of these images used the traditional perspective grid, perfectly drawn towards the center, into the distance, gently lifted above the sooty, flour bag filled, chair lined, random object strewn floors… The ceilings, at time mere wooden rafters, or strangely hanging remnants of roofing, as well as the intense traditionally red painted panels of a Chinese meeting room. Each image displayed a prevalent tone, using a dominant colour to unify an already precisely calculated composition. Standing there amidst forgotten creative spaces, these saturated pixels create a gentle memories, despite the distance from which the viewer perceives this physical documentation of cultural heritage…