ROOMS 17 presents: PING WANG
Ping Wang’s works display themes of isolation, solitude and resignation in a variety of different settings and are teemed with a sense of renowned admiration, a timeless energy, as if one were seeing the world again for the first time.
Photographer Ping Wang graduated from the New York Film Academy in 2014 and is currently completing a Master’s in Digital photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His works display themes of isolation, solitude and resignation in a variety of different settings and are teemed with a sense of renowned admiration, a timeless energy, as if one were seeing the world again for the first time. I caught up with the artist to find out more.
Hi Ping, tell me a little bit about yourself.
Born and raised in Beijing, I am the single child in a traditional military family. No one in my family has any background in art; actually, my family still do not really understand what exactly I am doing now. I live and work in New York City. My photographic works evidence a delicate balance between Eastern and Western visual culture, resulting in a personal style characterized by drama and restrain. My emotional sensitivity drives me to focus on the subtleties of light, architecture and the moments that often go unobserved.
What are your inspirations?
Talking about inspirations, I have to mention Michael Jackson. He is the first western artist came into my world. The first time I saw the video of his Billie Jean performance in his concert, his stage lighting and the way he controls the rhythm of the performance fascinated me. That triggered my interest in music videos and stage arts. Since then I began to explore the dramatic stage setting and the way to present the climax of the scene.
Are there any particular artists that have influenced you?
Tableau Photography: Gregory Crewdson, Jeff Wall, Ray K Metzker
Painting: Edward Hopper, René Magritte | Minjun Yue
Your photographs are very theatrical in the way that they are staged, like the sets to a film. How has film influenced your work, if at all?
Actually, I am more influenced by music videos and live performances (and stage arts). Because music videos are so short and delicate, I feel that it is more significant to focus on the rhythm and hit the climax than actually telling a story. Similarly to my works, I tend to present a feeling or a vibe instead of telling a complete story. Also, talking about music videos, Michael Jackson’s music video Smooth Criminal greatly influenced me in how it carefully stages every scene, and how each scene is related to one another.
Do you think that our ability to interact with one another is being affected by the digital within our lives?
Well, I would say the digital or digital lifestyle within our lives enables us to be exposed to the outside world. I can see what everyone is doing more easily, and can get inspirations from other artists’ works. It accelerates the speed of getting know each other, but also makes it hard to “really” know each other—the connection could only be on the surface.
From time to time, as an artist, I feel that I need a space to be isolated from the outside world in order to discover myself. Sometimes artists might lose their direction when marketing their career, but they really need to “go back to the nature”. For me, I don’t have a logical storyline behind my works; I focus on the feelings. Isolation enables me to discover this feeling. It opens up a door to let the curiousness and aspirations in, and my feelings are then automatically projected onto certain objects to make a photograph.
You grew up in Beijing and now live in New York. To what extent have these cities influenced your visions?
The military community in Beijing, a relatively closed, rigorous and a secure place for me. That environment influenced me a lot in the form of my works; you could see very few people in my works, in a clean and precise setting. But New York helps me to be fearless. Being with so many talented artists in New York, I feel free and bold to break the “rules” in my mind.
Check out Ping Wang's work in our current issue ROOMS 17, Who decides what you see?
The Writer’s Selection: Angel Chen
As much as this issue’s No Borders, No Boundaries sub-section pushed the boat out in terms of vibrant design, Angel Chen’s motley collection is a clear stand out for me.
As much as this issue’s No Borders, No Boundaries sub-section pushed the boat out in terms of vibrant design, Angel Chen’s motley collection is a clear stand out for me.
Chen describes herself in the article as a newborn baby, “curious about growing up and experimenting with prints.” This self-evaluation hits home with her latest collection, AW15The Bunny With Short Legs.
It is a explosion of colour in which patchwork cloaks hang over red rompers, puffed out bonnets dangle streamers onto the floor and scribbled faces adorn 3-piece pyjama suits. The collection bares resemblance to a troop of scouts on a weekend exhibition to the Highlands; albeit with the uncanny ability to actually suit yellow and blue pinstripe.
If Chen’s combinations in AW15 seem to be pushing the boundaries, a glorious pastiche of 70s high fashion, then her earlier work goes fully beyond the left-field.
AW14 Les Noces is the story of two girls who met in Africa and decided to get married. “My collection is a narrative of that story,” Chen says. “It’s a beautiful, colourful wedding, because in Europe weddings are always in black and white. The characters I portrayed are four friends who came from all over the world to celebrate.”
It is a charming story and a charming characterisation by Chen, who glosses over the fact that the four friends all seem to work as bedraggled clowns. Les Noces is stupendously surreal. The patterns are intense and the cuts chunky. Although it veers far closer to the farcical than later work, it remains in the sublime with a similar joyous giddiness as FRUiTS.
At the end of the article Chen talks about the direction she going with her work.
“I’m growing up with my customer. I’m really crazy about colour too. I want to explore detail and colour as much as I can.”
Whether this admission signals a continuation along the svelter lines of AW15 or a return to the brazen textures of Les Noces, Chen’s work will undoubtably continue to be as eye catching as it is unique.
The Ones to Wear: Angel Chen, Monique Daniels, Magdalena Brozda, Ka Kui Cheng, Shimell and Madden. Check out the interviews by Alyss Bowen in our new issue ROOMS 17, Who decides what you see?
ROOMS 17 presents Phil Ashcroft
London based artist Phil Ashcroft combines influence from abstract expressionism, landscape painting, Japanese woodcuts and graphic street art to present a vision of environmental, financial and political threats.
Cave Paintings (Ramsey 1 & 2), studio view, both works acrylic on canvas, 122 x 92cm, 2014. photo: Joe Plommer
London based artist Phil Ashcroft combines influence from abstract expressionism, landscape painting, Japanese woodcuts and graphic street art to present a vision of environmental, financial and political threats. His works immerse the viewer in surrealist settings in which cartoon-like motifs deconstruct modernist ideals.
Was there a shift from some form of realism to the abstract work you do today? If so, what brought it about?
I switch between figuration and abstraction depending on the project at hand, but it is true that most recently I have focused on more abstract process-based painting. However, even the recent abstract works aren’t truly abstract; they hold a basis in landscape, even if its just a horizon line to ground the work in some way. I plan to work on more detailed architectural graphic works soon. It's something I’ve left since 2009 but have an urge to return to.
Practically and technically, how do you create your works? Do you make sketches first or is a lot of the work freestyled?
Basically pretty old school, I produce paintings on canvas, layering individual elements quickly over a period of months. I usually work on three to four at a time, developing all works as I go. These works are intuitive but do begin from an initial thumbnail sketch or idea I want to explore. I don’t know how the work will finish or whether it will succeed and that’s the way it should be. Some areas contain crisp gradients, other areas are flat colour. Loose washes of paint complete the work in a manner that can never be produced digitally. Practice, planning and not planning.
You have described your work as depicting the detritus of the modernist ideals of the past. What are these ideals, why have they failed and how do you depict them?
This phrase related specifically to my more figurative architectural studies of ruins of buildings from 2006-2009. I wanted to show respect to those fallen ruins of the imagined future of the 1950s and 60s, a future that never came.
Their titles referenced ‘future music’ that I listen to, titles that I felt added an emotional charge to the work, ‘Fragments of a Lost Language’, 2008 (from Jacob’s Optical Stairway, London, 1995, 4 Hero at their best), ‘Good Life’, 2009 (Kevin Saunderson’s Inner City, Detroit, 1988), ‘Where You Go I Go Too’, 2008 (Lindstrøm, 2008). ‘The Skid Stops At This Point People’ 2006 was a phrase I saw on the back of a lorry whilst driving.
Are these modernist ideals in conflict with the corporate commissions you’ve done?
I don’t think any corporate commissions I’ve worked with to date could have any such impact.
What did the No Soul for Sale project hope to achieve?
This was a weekend celebration of independent artist groups to celebrate Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary in 2010. The curators’ idea was to bring attention to artist collectives on the fringe of the mainstream, hence Scrawl Collective’s involvement painting live in the Turbine Hall. Others participants included The Museum of Everything, Liverpool’s Royal Standard, Hong Kong’s PARA/SITE, New York’s White Columns. It was a fun weekend.
The intensity of colour and the hardness of the shapes in your work can make for intense viewing. What do you hope this intensity conveys?
I want my work to visually energise the viewer, to be dynamic. I hope it's not for sleeping to.
What are you working on at the moment?
Currently working on a new series of my ‘Cave Paintings’. Also just remixing an existing record cover album gatefold for ‘Beyond The Goldmine Standard’, an art project curated by Matthew Hearn at RPM Records, Newcastle.
What’s your favourite film?
‘Bladerunner’ (1982), as per usual, followed closely by Tony Hancock’s ‘The Rebel’ (1961).
Check out Phil Ashcroft's work in our new issue ROOMS 17, Who decides what you see?
The Writer's Selection : Ping Wang Xin
Miranda Hill reviews Ping Wang's photography, featured in our current issue ROOMS 17, Who decides what you see?
ROOMS 17 presents Ping Wang Xin
Here are the works of an artist whose images capture and communicate the moments of solitude that too often in our busy lives, go unnoticed. In a world that has become so fixated on being constantly connected, these moments are becoming harder to visualise and harder to find, which is why I was drawn to the works of New York based artist Ping Wang. Ping’s photographs give way to these moments of reflection and serve to remind us of the small but important presence of things that we take for granted. The subtleties of light that frame our ever changing landscapes, for example, or the architecture that stands before us as we venture into work. Ping’s images remind us to look up from our screens, to take a break from the digital infusing our lives and to take pleasure in the fact that we live in a world filled with splendour and beauty.
With an emotional sensitivity that many photographers lack, Ping explores the subtle interaction of human beings and the environment and in capturing the lone figure in moments of silence, skillfully manages to recharge our own appreciation for such feelings. I was particularly drawn to Ping’s series of travel inspired images that effortlessly capture scenes of people and sweeping landscapes to express his overriding themes of solitude and solace. Among them, the hazy image of a young child wandering absent-mindedly amidst the blushing orange sun that sets low on Brooklyn’s Coney Island and the simple yet refreshing scenes of humans interacting with one another on a ferry to New York. For London’s underground would have you thinking otherwise. And then there is my favourite image of a man pondering and absorbing in the realm of nature as he tends his leaves (Shan Dong in China, 2014). The photograph documents nature and man working together to create an isolation that I believe, is often the driving force behind creativity.
With these images comes an amazing ability to fill you with a desire to experience these new cultures and feel the energy of such exotic locations. An ache for distant places, the craving to travel. These are the scenes prior to the indoctrination of digitalisation and they are like bouts of fresh air, captured so beautifully and artistically by Ping that it would be hard not to miss them.
Check out Ping Wang's work in our current issue ROOMS 17, Who decides what you see?
ROOMS 17 | Who decides what you see? Unravelling Perspective
We invite you to embrace the un-embraced, explore the unexplored, in an adventure of perception. Will you unravel yours? NEW ISSUE OUT NOW!
How do you gain clarity in a world of instinctually different perspectives? Of minds fixated in black and white, oblivious to those standing boldly in-between? The greys, the what ifs, the could haves… the creators. This April, ROOMS answer exactly that and invite you to explore the ever-growing path of fresh talent and raw perspectives, bringing to you a carefully selected, impressive host of artists, designers, musicians, filmmakers and world class, working creatives.
Among them, exclusive interviews with former graphic designer and now director Greg Barth, composer and video artist Michael Nyman and the man behind the lens, photographer Luke Wassmann. Delve into the delicate works of Yuko Oda, the perceptive designs of Asa Ashuach and the playful works of Olaf Breuning. And skillfully mastering the art of art making with tea drinking, we speak to Carne Griffiths about his drawing rituals, catch up with the visual charmers of PUTPUT and Luis Vasquez tells his beautiful story of how his music turned into an engrossing passion of survival that saved his life.
We invite you to embrace the un-embraced, explore the unexplored, in an adventure of perception. Will you unravel yours?
Also in this issue, we talk to Addictive TV duo, Bianca Pilet, Daisy Jacobs, George Vasey, Realities United, Tom Hancocks and so much more.
Greg Barth: Icons of the Unpredictable
Greg Barth is a London based award winning artist and director from Geneva, Switzerland, and the cover artist of our brand new issue ROOMS 17, photographed by Alexandra Uhart.
The cover artist of ROOMS 17 uncovered
Greg Barth is a London based award winning artist and director from Geneva, Switzerland, and the cover artist of our brand new issue, ROOMS 17 -- photographed by Alexandra Uhart.
Barth is known for producing work that combines Surrealism, Minimalism and Pop. His work seemed perfect for ROOMS 17’s tagline: ‘Who decides what you see?’ This question combined with Barth’s image creates a cover that approaches both art and politics.
Is the mask an act of censorship or an act of art?
A mask covers a person’s face. Who put the mask there? Is he forced to wear it, or is he willing? Why are his eyes covered up? What doesn’t he want to see? The mask could be obscuring his vision of the outside world, preventing him from seeing something. Or, the mask could be showing him something; inside the mask could be a digital screen or images, which showcases something, new and wondrous to him.
In either case the question still throws up political questions, both about state and about art. Thankfully in most countries, the state cannot control what you watch. This came to the fore when working on this issue of ROOMS, as many in the cultural world where still reeling from incident surrounding the infamous film ‘The Interview’. In art, the question of ‘Who decides what you see?’ is bound up is questions and theories surrounding the artist. Ultimately, when viewing an artwork the viewer’s thoughts return to the artist and why they created the work: ‘what do they want me to see?’ However, I would suggest more emphasis needs to be put on the viewer and what they can add to the work, rather than what they need to see. In this instance the same can be applied to our cultural freedom. I was encouraged when I saw members of the public, including the heads of film industries, critics and cinemagoers protesting and wanting to see the film. In the end we all have to stand up to our cultural freedom. We have a right to choose to look.
Jesc Bunyard interviews Greg Barth in our new issue ROOMS 17, Who decides what you see?
