CHEN NONG. climbing to the moon

CHEN NONG climbing to the moon REFLEX AMSTERDAM

climbing to the moon

climbing to the moon CHEN NONG Reflex Editions Amsterdam 2 Climbing To The Moon #3 (detail), silver gelatin print color-painted, 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm

CHEN NONG Reenacting the past in China As a historian, philosopher or visionary, Chen Nong, the 45 year old Chinese artist, is not known. hutongs, the narrow lanes, that used to form the vibrant heart of the Chinese capital. Learning from books, he started his artistic career as a Five years ago, my first impression of the photo photographer, who literally added color to his work. paintings of Chen Nong was so overwhelming that the genius of his artistic vision has since stayed with me. The Yellow River series, exhibited at the 798 Art district of Beijing, consisted of eight works of historic dimensions. Throughout its 7000 years history, China has had its share of wars, upheavals and revolutions. Conscious about the immense past of the Middle Kingdom, he started to think about ways to visualize in his work, the culture and history of the Chinese nation. Chen Nong was born in 1966 in the coastal city of Fuzhou in the southwestern part of China. His parents were laborers. After getting a basic education he worked a few years as a factory worker We can never escape history, says Chen Nong. It is embedded in us, part of who we are and of what we become. in a TV production facility. For several years, he did not succeed to get accepted at the local academy for fine arts. In his hometown, he first became a sculptor before turning to his fascination for photography and establishing his own photo studio. Moving to Beijing at the turn of the century, Chen Nong first started a coffee house in one of the Starting point for each and every work is the historic and cultural significance for Chinese society. The influence of his humble family background is evident in his lines of thought and work. One of his first series of photo paintings, a combination of his photographic work and his colorful enrichment of 4 Forbidden City #6, silver gelatin print color-painted, 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm 5

the photos, is the Yellow River series situated on the banks of the Yellow River. some instances their weapons and other attributes. In order to be able to render a realistic and truthful reflection of the past, he designs the costumes His original idea evolved around the last 2000 years of Chinese rural history about which written records are available. With his family background, Chen Nong first of all and props of that time. In the Yellow River series, those costumes were then made by a tailor. In his imaginary time machine, he brings the past into the present, creating a new reality. looked at events in the vast rural areas of China. He discovered that during the last 2000 years, eight major rebellions took place led by farmers against the landlords and the authorities. He customarily does a lot of research and reads about the circumstances and developments surrounding an event. In this way, he is getting a realistic image about the people involved and the atmosphere in that era. Chen Nong makes, through sketches, a kind of pictorial scenario, so that the emerging photo paintings will ultimately tell a story. Getting a clear picture of a rebellion, Chen Nong proceeds to look for the details like the clothes of the farmers at the time, their working tools and in After all these preparations, Chen Nong starts his field work. Leaving for the regions, where the rebellions occurred, he looks for the right settings in the countryside, carefully choosing the season and location for the photo shooting. Visiting villages along the Yellow River, he mobilizes its inhabitants for a small fee and dresses them with the prepared costumes and other attributes. Like a film director, Chen Nong places his village actors in the landscape. Reenacting the historic events surrounding the farmers rebellions, the amateur actors are engaged in protests and fights on the natural stage of the village theater, while Chen Nong is directing them. While the villagers are involved with their roles, Yellow River part 1/8, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm Chen Nong at set, shooting for the series Yellow River 6 7

Chen Nong takes the pictures with an antique camera. After this artistic shooting spree, he returns home to Beijing with a varied collection of black and white photographs from the rebellion in the looking at the mirror of the past to make sense of the present. As if to say, look we came from turbulent events, look what we accomplished and where we arrived today. countryside. The farmers rebellions of the last 2000 years are just After the research, the sketching, the preparations and the photo shooting sessions, the next stage in his process is the selection of suitable pictures for the painting process. Each of the chosen pictures is being color painted by hand, so that the violent scenes become even more impressive. one example of the way Chen Nong approaches his work with powerful imagination. With the warriors of the Three Gorges, he brings the soldiers of the terracotta army to life. Violence and protest, however, are not a recurrent theme in his series of photo paintings. Men s quest for the Moon and the planets in the enormous Universe become for from the series Peking Opera Mask #5 and #11, silver gelatin prints color-painted, each 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm Putting his ideas in a historic perspective is giving instance a central theme in his series Climbing some direction to the turbulent course of Chinese history. Without becoming a prisoner of history, he is giving an extra dimension to the events he is so colorfully describing with his lens and his paint brush. Through his looking glass, Chen Nong is to the Moon. In these rocket propelled photo paintings, his visionary mind and dream-like fantasies are melding together in adventurous images. In this series of photo paintings Chen Nong expresses, that human desire knows no limits. In more romantic series Chen Nong turns around placing events in the midst of the natural beauty and diversity of his beloved country, its flora, fauna and its people. In series like Fly, Forbidden City and Water Lily, the master photographer inspires us in a more civilization is the destruction of the beauty, which we are facing. In this first overview of Chen Nong s work, of photo paintings, published by the Dutch Art Gallery Alex Daniels, the focus is on the cultural heritage of intimate way showing another side of the character China. From his different photographic angles of the Chinese people. and perspectives, he succeeds in installing his global audience with his vision of the cultural Looking at the very different images, one might developments in the Middle Kingdom. By think that Chen Nong is a storyteller. At a closer accentuating his black and white images in such look, one is becoming not just curious, but intrigued special colorful ways, Chen Nong brings to live long by the pictures. The full story remains, however, forgotten Chinese societies. The dynamics of his hidden behind the images. Chen Nong turns out to original artistic processes have such an impact, that be more of a curtain-raiser than just a storyteller. we become almost active participants in his dream- With his fascinating pictures, he is opening up the like and visionary world. contradictory and often conflicting worlds of ancient as well as contemporary China. In modern China, Robert Simons, according to Chen Nong, it seems as if the price of Shanghai, August 2012 Yuan Mingyuan 2 (detail), silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 50 cm 100 x 100 cm 8 9

10 Forbidden City #9, silver gelatin prints color-painted, 50 x 120 cm 100 x 240 cm 11

12 Water Lilly #3, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 13

14 Water Lilly #1, triptych, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 180 cm 100 x 360 cm 15

16 Fly #3, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 17

18 Fly #4, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm Fly #2, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 19

20 Fly #1, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 21

22 Climbing To The Moon #1 (part 1 and 2), silver gelatin prints color-painted, each 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm 23

24 Climbing To The Moon #1 (part 3 and 4), silver gelatin prints color-painted, each 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm 25

26 Yellow River 8 parts, silver gelatin prints color-painted, each 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 27 Yellow River sketch, 8 parts, ink, color pencil, pencil on paper, each part 21 x 28 cm 28

Yellow River part 4/8, silver gelatin print color painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 29 31

Yellow River part 3/8, silver gelatin print color painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 32 33

34 Three Gorges #2 part 1/8, silver gelatin print color painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 35

36 Three Gorges #2, 8 parts, silver gelatin prints color painted, each 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 37

Three Gorges #2, part 7/8, silver gelatin print color painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 38 39

Three Gorges #1, 8 parts, silver gelatin prints color painted, each 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 40 41

42 43

44 45

46 47

48 49

50 51

52 53

54 55

56 Forbidden City #5, silver gelatin print color-painted, 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm 57

58 Forbidden City #1, silver gelatin print color-painted, 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm Forbidden City #2, silver gelatin print color-painted, 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm 59

60 Forbidden City #3, silver gelatin print color-painted, 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm Peking Opera Mask #1, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 61

62 Peking opera mask #12, silver gelatin print color-painted, 60 x 50 cm 120 x 100 cm Peking Opera Mask #6, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 63

CHEN NONG Born in Fuzhou of Fujian Province, China Chen Nong worked for a TV production before he started to do sculptures in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. In 1996 he established a photo studio in Fuzhou, and in 2000 a photo studio in Hutong café in Beijing. He is living and working in Beijing. Exhibitions: 2005 I Could Fly, Pingyao Photo Festival, China 2006 HERE solo exhibition, Yuantian Photo Gallery, Beijing, China 2006 Photo Biennale, Rome, Italy 2007 Pingyao Photo Festival, China 2007 Chinese Square, New York, USA 2007 Australian Photography Festival, Perth, Australia 2007 Contemporary China, photo exhibition, National Museum of Art, Australia 2007 Solo exhibition, XYZ Gallery, Beijing 2007 Guangzhou Photo Biennale, Guangzhou, China 2008 HERE, XYZ Gallery, Beijing, China 2009 Melbourne Photography Festival, Australia 2009 Contemporary China, photo exhibition, Budapest, Hungary 2009 MOMA Photo Exhibition, San Francisco, USA 2010 Solo exhibition, OPHOTO, Shanghai, China 2010 Solo exhibition, XYZ Gallery, Beijing, China 2010 Solo exhibition, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, USA 2011 Solo Exhibition, OPHOTO Gallery Shanghai, China 2011 Museum of Cultures, Basel, Switzerland 2012 Solo exhibition Climbing To The Moon, Galerie Alex Daniels - Reflex Amsterdam, Netherlands Chen Nong s works are included in international collections such as Galerie Alex Daniels - Reflex Amsterdam, Marlborough Gallery / New York, Schneider Gallery / Chicago, XYZ Gallery / Beijing, OPHOTO Gallery / Shanghai, International Center for Photography / New York, MOMA / San Francisco, National Museum of Art / Australia, Museum of Art / Harvard University, USA, St. Barbara Museum / California, Museum of Cultures / Basel. 64 Peking Opera Mask #5, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm Peking Opera Mask #7, silver gelatin print color-painted, 50 x 60 cm 100 x 120 cm 65

COLOPHON Published on the occasion of the exhibition CHEN NONG climbing to the moon Galerie Alex Daniels - Reflex Amsterdam September 29 - November 3, 2012 All artworks by Chen Nong. Introduction by: Robert Simons, a former Middle East correspondent for Holland and Belgium, and former foreign editor of Dutch public television. Since 2005, living in China he is an art consultant promoting cultural exchange between China and Europe. Book and cover design: Alex Daniels Reflex Editions, Amsterdam, all rights reserved. Calligraphy by Master Feng Production assistant: Viola Winokan Special thanks to Robert Simons, Catherine Cheng Guoqin, Ria en Lex Daniels. Print: Meco Offset BV, Zwaag. Published by Alex Daniels, Reflex Editions, Amsterdam 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without prior written permission from the copyright holders and publishers. All images courtesy of Chen Nong and Galerie Alex Daniels - Reflex Amsterdam ISBN 978-90-71848-15-5 Weteringschans 79 A, 1017 RX Amsterdam open: Tuesday - Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm Phone +31(0)20 627 28 32 Fax +31(0)20 620 25 90 info@reflexamsterdam.com www.reflexamsterdam.com 66