Unstoppable urban development let people get amnesia, because they often forget what exists here before. I can only catch up with its pace, with the camera to āfightā the changes in hometown. My hometown influence me and shape me from birth. As the beginning of the book, I was dressed in a clothes from grandparents which is found in my grandmotherās room. The effect seems to be a mutual process between my hometown and myself. What I have seen is what it wish I could see. Shooting hometown seems like a journey in reverse direction, leading to the dark memories and our original heart.
In my work, I use Bachimen,Ā home, Food, Land, God, sea as the clue to reconstruct my hometown and put these fragments that I collected from my hometown into a book which can be read or showed. In this form, these spaces, people and objects can condense on the paper. Through covering and unfolding the pages, it starts to reveal the meaning of my hometown to me.
The final work presentation will combine handbook with enlarged size single photograph and objects, sounds collected from my hometown. Itās a section of our hometown which is drifting away in the urban developing. It will give us a chance to stop to touch our hometown and reflect on what is the meaning of home.
Q&A with Zhu Lan Qing
Photography isā¦
Photography is the distance between me and the world, it let me approach things with curiosity but keep a distance to focus. Photography helps me to define things in the world.
Photography and writingā¦
Photography and writing can make shapeless things become clear, like invisible falling raindrops splashed on the ground.
Who left the biggest impression on you?
My Grandma. I lived with her in a small village from my birth. She is a very traditional Chinese woman and she taught me much about the tradition and nature.
Tell us a little about yourself
For myself, I like all old things such as old movies, old clothes, old shops and so on, they often give much inspiration to my work. I came to Taipei to study because I like the movies of Hsiao-hsien Hou so much. But this summer Iāll go back to my hometown in south of China to do my new project about a bankruptcy seaside resort.
Zhu Lan Qing, ę±åµęø
, (www.julanching.com).
1991 born in Dongshan Island, Fujian Province, China.
Live in Taipei, Taiwan now.
