graham fink’s ballads of shanghai show the changing landscape of urban china
all images © graham fink
graham fink: ballads of shanghai
riflemaker gallery, london
now through february 14, 2016
over the past five years, multimedia artist graham fink traveled in and around shanghai to document its increasing number of demolition sites. from now until february 14, 2016, the artist presents a selection of images from his travels at london’s riflemaker gallery that embody the rapidly-changing landscape of urban china. ‘ballads of shanghai’ expresses the monumental shift and historic transformation taking place as china moves increasingly towards large-scale urbanization, and more workers relocate for employment in the manufacturing industries.
‘face off’
these chaotic, destroyed areas meet at the intersection between past and future, where the old is being demolished in exchange for subsequent spaces, structures and ideas. the ‘relics’ are torn down to make way for the city’s new wave of super skyscrapers, office buildings and advanced domestic ways of living. as a result, these sites are in constant flux, where entire areas are flattened to allow space for new beginnings.
‘big dreams’
wallpaper clings to a wall, a child’s drawing remains on a fragment of what was formerly a bedroom and a once favorite chair is now left for economy and industry to reclaim. each image bears a painterly quality, revealing sharp juxtapositions between old and new, and simultaneously shaping the human stories or ‘ballads’ that are inherent parts of these sites.
‘peace among the pieces’
‘meeting abandoned’
‘mao was here’
‘jay’
‘hand imprints’
‘graffiti grafittied’
‘girl on the roof’
‘twitter’
‘chair single’
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