Artist Profiles

Hai Bo

Anyone who has been in contact with contemporary Chinese culture will have noticed the attraction that portrait photographs, generally stiffly posed and very formal, have for the inhabitants of China. Photographs record all important rites of passage - the individual as a baby, the individual with parents, with siblings, with members of his or her extended family, with fellow-pupils, co-workers, with participants in some collective event. These formally posed photographs have also attracted the attention of other Chinese artists, notably the conceptualist Hai Bo [b. 1962], who pairs group photographs taken during the Cultural Revolution period with others, showing the subjects identically posed, but as they are today. These works by Hai Bo are affecting because of the way in which they reflect the passage of time. In one pair of group photographs, for example, the second photograph shows only one surviving participant out of five - all the others are dead. The survivor i! s wearing a western-style leather jacket, and has gown a trendy moustache. When one compares Hai Bo's work with that of Zhang Xiaogang some of the fundamental differences between the things that photography can go and the things that painting can do immediately become apparent. As Hai's work states clearly, a photograph is a slice cut through an ongoing stream of events. It halts the passage of time at a particular moment. Hai's conjunctions enable us to compare one absolutely specific moment with another, equally specific. This is not something that painting can do.

Other Works By This Artist [ click to view larger images ]