Issue No. 2:
Photography (2020)
The public viewing the photos at the first Nature, Society, and Man exhibition in the Orchid Room, Zhongshan Park, Beijing 1979.
Guan Kan is a journal dedicated to thinking about contemporary art made by Chinese artists. While the first issue, focuses on performance, Issue no. 2 takes photography as its subject. Artists use photography to critique and document life in contemporary China and rethink its history. Essays in this issue address how photography has developed and its primary currents within contemporary Chinese art. This issue has a focus on Wang Qingsong, as well as essays on contemporary artists Shao Yinong and Muchen.
Pictures and Perspectives: The contemporary photography of Wang Qingsong, Muchen and Shao Yinong
Photography became an important medium for the expression and documentation of personal histories in China, and often a means for oblique social criticism. The contemporary photography of Wang Qingsong, Muchen and Shao Yinong is imbued with this history. This essay traces the evolution of Chinese photography and critical discourse in the late 1970s to interpret the contemporary work of these artists.
A Conversation with Shao Yinong and Muchen
On a humid Friday afternoon in July 2019, a group of art history students from the University of Western Australia arrived at the residence of artists and couple Shao Yinong and Muchen. Welcoming the group into their home, the artists presented and discussed their work, before beginning an informal Q&A.