Media Barrage, Art Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2005 photo

Jennifer Zhou | all galleries >> Galleries >> Shanghai Story > Media Barrage, Art Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2005


27-MAR-2005

Media Barrage, Art Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2005

Huge screen. Dark Room. Blurred figures. Media congests and dominates our lives. People are stressed, and struggle to escape from manipulation. The woman's body vanishes in darkness just as a black shadow rushes past her, making a real world seem unreal. I can't help questioning what really is the reality here?

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Guest		20-May-2005 08:41
I like this image Jen... a spooky one I have to say but rich in many aspects. Don't have to say how abstract it is (quite a bit) specially I percieved on one hand the great screen, I like that the image is like a person that is looking to the camera with shap eyes, this creates a dialog between her and the viewer to my point of vew, thoug her slightly smily face combined with her look makes here seem agresive almost, though the context helps for it with abstracting the photo to BW and the figures. The ghostly figures... what to say, the dark one infront of the screen is positioned in such a way that it gives strenght to the same TV screen, while the other one with the lighted but blured face gives it a very tetric view, specially since you hardly see the body. All that stressed too by the tilting of your camera and the use of the angular lense. As I said, good picture. :)

A Reid		13-May-2005 15:36
The one face that is comes out of the shadows and has the light hitting it just perfectly is almost scary looking the way it was captured. I like it. It's a nice contradiction to the calm face of the woman on the tv.

Guest		13-May-2005 04:58
Thank you Phil for your insight and you Jen for explaining your thoughts. When you first posted this image it had the title Art Gallery. You have now added Media Barrage to the title. With that new title, it has a completely new meaning to me. It strikes me that even the title of an image provides context for what you want to express. It guides the viewer to your thoughts. It doesn't invalidate the viewers ideas about the image, but it tells us what you were thinking. This image has been bothering me (in a good way) over the last 24hrs, because as Phil says it is jarring, disquieting and disorientating. Your new title has brought it some stability (almost too much). I also note that it is fundamentally different to any of your other images here. That means that you have gone through a new barrier, and that can only be good for the rest of us here who enjoy and learn so much from your work. rgds Kal

Phil Douglis		12-May-2005 20:46
*** The blurred, abstract people walking past a huge television screen are completely unaware of this woman's presence, just as this woman is complete unaware of the fact that she is being ignored. This image is really Jen as a social commentator. You tell us that no matter how large the screen, and how vast the presence of television and media may be in our lives, none of us can be forced to pay attention. The image is casually made, a discordant snapshot. And it works. It is jarring, disquieting, and disorienting. It took me a few seconds to figure it out, but once I did, it worked for me. I am proud of you for taking this risk, Jen.

Kal Khogali		12-May-2005 11:56
Just thought, maybe the moving people are the art and she is looking in. How provoking! What was going through your mind? Kal

Kal Khogali		12-May-2005 11:50
Hi Jen. I have been following your galleries for some time and am delighted to have the chance to comment on this recent piece of your tremendous work. How you see things is a gift. To me the motion in this picture is what makes it expressive (as phil would say abstract), but the amazing incongruity to me is not simply the motion vs the still image of the lady in the background, but it is that that image of her is in itself meant to be art, just like your image. The message to me is that in life today we can walk past things without realising it, but that infact from another perspective (your gift) we are part of something just as if not more beautiful. To refer to something that Phil has mentioned before, this Photograph sums it all up; the difference between a snapshot (the image of the lady) and expressive photography (your image). Amazing. rgds, Kal

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