 |
| Blindspot Gallery (Aberdeen Street) |
I like visiting exhibitions, and I've visited
Blindspot Gallery quite a few times. After the show of
Yangjiang Group, now they are hosting an exhibition of
Anothermountainman (又一山人), who is one of my best favourite Hong Kong photographers. But this exhibition varies from the normal ones, it exhibits in two locations. Blindspot Annex is a huge exhibition space located in Wong Chuk Hang industrial district (southern Hong Kong island), and it is indeed a paradise of artists.
 |
| Blindspot Annex (Wong Chuk Hang Road) |
 |
| Blindspot Annex (Wong Chuk Hang Road) |
Anothermountainman, I've heard this name for long time ago. Finally got a chance to visit his work of arts. Ok dictionary time. Lanwei's direct meaning is "
broken tail". Tail in Chinese is the end, finale, and "
broken tail" means something was being done but for some reason it was ceased in the middle of its progress. The synonyms would be abortion or abandon. This word can be used in developing project, constructing building or even a relationship.
 |
| Lanwei @ Blindspot Annex (Wong Chuk Hang Road) |
" Buildings can be aborted, so can project.
Plans may be aborted, so may hopes.
Ties between people could be aborted, so could relationships.
Life, I guess should not be aborted. " Said Anothermountainman.
 |
| Lanwei 5 / Big Business / 2006 / China / Guangzhou © anothermountainman |
It is indeed a brilliant exhibition. Anothermountainman's works not merely have high image quality, they also contain sarcastic elements such as a variety of costumed characters in the pictures, as well as revealing the "fun fact" behind the photographs. In his
Wonderland, 2102 series, for example, he showed a conversation with a local guy and noticed that the counterfeit Disneyland in Beijing was built by a rich man for his son. However, the construction aborted due to his son was dead, which is other layer of "lanwei". From the architecture "lanwei" to the human life "lanwei", it truly depicts the uncertainty of our daily trajectories.
The Workshop, 2008 is another great example. Anothermountainman invited the builders to go to the construction site to have a group photo, but somehow the builders didn't come because of their hotels didn't have morning call service. Whether it was an excuse or a true inconvenience, this instance was an add-on "lanwei". In which, a deeper layer was embedded into the photograph. I guess this is the point of success of Anothermountainman's artworks.
One more "lanwei" thing is on the hinge of every catalog. Deliberately making the hinge has the feeling of "lanwei", or unfinished if you like, which is correlating the theme of the show. There is undoubtable that the presentation has reached the supreme level.
 |
| Lanwei hinge |
