By Louise Chen
Originally published: August 02, 2010
http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/277608/visions-of-utopia-a-qa-with-photographer-weng-fen
A keen observer and critic of China's urban development, the Chinese photographer Weng Fen is known for his body of work that conveys both urban grit and a limpid expansiveness of vision often associated with ideas of Utopia. Toting his camera around the country, he spent years exploring the landscapes of such coastal Chinese cities as Haikou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, often viewing them through the prism of a foregrounded figure whose back is turned to the viewer. In his early series "Sitting on the Wall," for instance, teenage girls stare off to the distance, their faceless figures imposing a divide between a crumbling foreground and a crystal-blue vista of urban scenery and sky.
Last month, Fen came to New York for the opening of "Between Here and There: Passages in Contemporary Photography" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a group show featuring a work from his "Sitting on the Wall" series. ARTINFO's Louise Chen met with the artist at Chambers Fine Art gallery to discuss his work, which has in recent years expanded around the world to examine concepts of urban Utopia in the context of globalism — a process that brought him to England's Lake District for his current project, "Staring at the Sea."
Tell me about "Sitting on the Wall," the series that your piece in the Met show was selected from.
I completed the series in 2001. I spent 10 years on one part of this ongoing series. It was continuously shot on one location in the city of Haikou, China. This set of photography documents the ongoing urban development and transformation the city went through during the past decade.
When did you have your first show in the United States?
I had my first show at Chambers Fine Art , which is this gallery. It was a group show around 1995 or so.
Did you shift from your earlier focus on capturing the phenomenon of urban development in the country to the recent attempts to explore the idea of urban Utopia?
Actually I didn’t change my artistic direction. The concept of urban Utopian has always been woven within my work throughout the years. In my work, the little girls are watching over the whole city with hope, curiosity, and fear. The urban scenery in front of her embodies the imagination and anticipation for the future while the dilapidated landscape alludes to the emotional attachment to the past — these emotions and sentiments partly comprise urban Utopia. This concept has been the core of my work and a starting point, from which has derived a variety of sub-themes and series.
How did this specific Utopian concept come to emerge in your work?
It is related to my life experience. I was born and grew up in a mountainous area on the Hainan Island in China. At that time, all the local residents originally migrated from other parts of China, so people in our town don’t speak their dialect but standard Mandarin. I grew up with strong curiosity to know what it’s like outside of my town and the Hainan Island. After graduating from college, I returned to Haikou, the capital of Hainan province and was struck by the rapid urban development in the city.
Do you plan to continue mining the subject of urban Utopia in your work?
It is not a continuation because I’ve always been concerned about the urban development and its epiphenomena in China, especially in the context of globalization. What interests me the most is the process of examining an issue within a length of time. I’d like to work with a concept, which is at once definite and indefinite.
Photography is the medium you are most associated with, but you work in other art forms as well. What is your approach to working with diverse media?
Different media enables me to take different approaches to a subject from various angles. My work might take different forms, but there’s a common thread running through it. You know my recent works include large-scale installations made of thousands of duck, chicken and quail eggs.
What is the symbolic meaning of the eggs in your work?
The egg is associated with fragility and hope, which exactly characterize the current state of China, a country in rapid development.
So in other words, it is about opportunity and risk?
Yes, indeed. That's what's facing the whole world.
Would you describe yourself as an artist who is socially concerned as well as an observer and critic of current affairs?
Yes. Contemporary art is about contemporariness and reflecting on current affairs. In my view, what’s in the past has been addressed by a great many people. We need to face the new challenges and come up with new ideas and solutions. As an artist, I can establish a relationship between myself and the audience through my work, between myself and social reality, and the interrelationship within society. The more relationships you establish, the more expansive the network of relationships will become. It is about communication, encounter, and interaction.
What are you working on right now?
I’m working on an art project called “Chi-Na Travel Agency” with artists based in Hainan. Aside from being the name of the country, “Chi-Na” is pronounced similarly to a Chinese verb meaning “to deconstruct,” which alludes to the rapid urbanization. We organized a nonprofit travel and cultural agency offering free tours in my home town. We are inviting people with different social backgrounds to come visit in groups.
Why do you want to show people the town where you are from?
This project is meant to present and address the issues and conflicts between the local traditional culture and rapid urbanization. The town where my family has been living for generations is being converted to an air space headquarters with a space-themed park nearby. The seashore area will become a tourist town. So the local residents are faced with a series of issues such as displacement, migration, and confronting urbanization. We are seeking a way to preserve the nature and culture while embracing the new development. We want to explore the possible approaches we can take to addressing these issues.
Who have you invited to take the tour?
The first group is my students, and later there are people from out of the Hainan. We want to provide the opportunity to experience the culture and the nature in the city and to simply establish a relationship between the town and people from other parts of the country and the world. Eventually I want to invite leaders from a variety of industries to come visit the town. I want to build this project into a forum in which disparate ideas clash and give rise to new inspirations and concepts. It is like a hub for communication and interaction.