Xie Hongdong: The Third Compass
ENGAGE Projects is excited to announce our upcoming solo exhibition The Third Compass by photographer Xie Hongdong. Based in Beijing, Hongdong draws on his upbringing in Gansu Province of northwest China, a diverse landscape of grassland, desert, mountain range, and river, to make his photographs that abstract elements of the natural world. Both obscure and familiar in their physicality, Hongdong鈥檚 works touch on the subconscious with their intuitive link between the external environment and internal psyche. The artist adheres to a strict principle of no post-photo manipulation to preserve the translation from life to frame, perfecting this self-taught approach to photography since 2012.
Reinvigorating imagery of the everyday, Hongdong鈥檚 luminous photographs of micro landscapes have a strong undercurrent that speaks of global anthropogenic issues. He says, 鈥淚 am interested in the minute things in nature that tell us about the changes in the larger world.鈥� While climate change often happens on a scale incomprehensible to humans, Hongdong chooses to zero in on one subject at a time, dissociating matter such as plants, water, ice, smoke, and spider webs from their natural environments and inspiring a personal connection between larger environmental issues and the individual.
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ENGAGE Projects is excited to announce our upcoming solo exhibition The Third Compass by photographer Xie Hongdong. Based in Beijing, Hongdong draws on his upbringing in Gansu Province of northwest China, a diverse landscape of grassland, desert, mountain range, and river, to make his photographs that abstract elements of the natural world. Both obscure and familiar in their physicality, Hongdong鈥檚 works touch on the subconscious with their intuitive link between the external environment and internal psyche. The artist adheres to a strict principle of no post-photo manipulation to preserve the translation from life to frame, perfecting this self-taught approach to photography since 2012.
Reinvigorating imagery of the everyday, Hongdong鈥檚 luminous photographs of micro landscapes have a strong undercurrent that speaks of global anthropogenic issues. He says, 鈥淚 am interested in the minute things in nature that tell us about the changes in the larger world.鈥� While climate change often happens on a scale incomprehensible to humans, Hongdong chooses to zero in on one subject at a time, dissociating matter such as plants, water, ice, smoke, and spider webs from their natural environments and inspiring a personal connection between larger environmental issues and the individual.
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Imagine, if you will, a young boy growing up in Gansu province, a poor northwest region of China, in a home where the whole family sleeps on a single mat on the floor.
Several times a year, I go back to my hometown to see, feel, and taste it again. I call it a blood connection; it is my home.
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