“Dazzled Supernatural” by Jingran Zhang
Outside of photography, Chengdu based Chinese artist Jingran Zhang has another savor for his life, which is antique business. More specifically, he’s a buddhist beads craftsman, always holds religious and antique collectible books on his hands. This kind of interest has not only infiltrated into his daily life but carved his artistic photos imperceptibly.
That probably is the reason why he think his works are commonplace for himself, “photography is part of my life, I took what I saw, just for fun”, he says that with a shrug. But for the ordinary people, his works seem to mix the weird, absurds, religious, technology, ancient views all together, left us into a supernatural reality, a world full of mysteries, horror and magic.
“Because life in China literally is like magic”, he continued. Since China’s new era of reform and opening up, the economy and science and technology have been developed faster than ever, however, in terms of culture, many habits of the past been preserved. Most people still live under the Chinese traditional ways and aesthetics. This push-and-pull between these opposing perspectives contribute to the strangeness of his works. Skyscraper and temples, guardian lions are fully armed by electronic components, cctv under the clear blue sky...those strong contrasts under the dazzled flashlight to present a more unrealistic visual effect.
‘Linglong Pagoda’ was Jingran Zhang’s first project. ‘Linglong’ means exquisite and ingenious in Chinese. The whole project was started at 2017, which captured the streetscape and habits of people throughout the western cities of China, contains various subjects. Some works of the project are revolving around Buddhist elements, some are more like documentary-style, and some collage elements occasionally. His attitude towards this project is simple: as casual as possible. He says, “there is no specific perspective I wanted to explain in my works. I usually took what I found interesting randomly, to leave more imagination things and feelings to the audience themselves”.
But one certain thing what he has made in his works is intentionally, which is the erased faces. Whether the prayer or the derivative works of the old family pictures and etc., the faces of the characters are deliberately covered. He continued, “I was born in Xinjiang. This kind of method was inspired by the veils worn by Xinjiang’s Uyghur women, a simple piece of clothing that gives off a sense of mystery. To be honest, I’m bored of traditional portraits. Commercial photography and the beauty filters of today revolt me. I want my photos to be fun, and I don’t want to waste time indulging superficialities, that is important for me”.
