ASH

Muge

*“Ash” refers to the ashes of death: “In the cycle of life, one goes back to where one came from, all souls return to their creator.”

Year 2009 marked the fifth year of my project “Going Home”, yet the number of pictures that I took in the Three Gorges region gradually declined. Practical reasons made it impossible for me to face the silent and forbearing local people any longer, and so I returned to my hometown to ponder on how to continue my work. Slowing down to give more time for reflection, I took on an old view camera. The change was initially intended to capture how individuals look in reality. I discovered that the countenances and expression from the eyes are filled with the contradictory facets of both hope and helplessness.

May 2010, my daughter was born. From then on my perception of life changed. I began to explore the world through the eyes of a child. Curiosity is the starting point of how children view and interact with the world; the things around them are of the greatest interest. Thus emerged the concept for the photo series “Still Objects”. For example, metal wires in a vase. When the light imprints on the wall the shadow of the vase filled with twisted metal wires, the image is beautiful, but at the same time brutal. Since then I’ve slowly begun to observe every aspect of daily life and to love this world instead of ridiculing it. When I used the view camera to re-understand my hometown as it is now, I’ve discovered that all things in the real world derive from our internal desire: the karma cycle of yearning for nature, destroying nature, and mending nature. Hence, I’ve gone to nature to look for the three unchangeable elements – mountain, water, and stone – to observe the traces of time and history and restored to nature its very essence: solemn, respectful, and mysterious. I had formerly felt resentful of the world and viewed everything in the worst light. Now I like to look at things and objects as they are – in this simple world in which we live.

These images are taken from understandings gleaned from my daily life, the traces of time and history in nature, and a person”s thoughts of the future when faced with reality.

  • Muge

“Going Home”(2005-2010) is Muge’s previous work, for which he returned to his hometown of Chongqing, to document the changes wrought by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam downstream from Chongqing on the Yangtse River. The Three Gorges Project was decided by the Chinese government in 1992, and resulted in the submerging of more than 20 counties and districts in Hubei Province and Chongqing, more than 270 villages and towns and more than 1500 companies. Muge’s home town was located in one of these flooded areas.

Book Size
217 x 273 x 15 mm
Pages
41 photo reproductions
Binding
Hard cover
Publication Date
2013
Limited edition
500

Artist Profile

Muge

Born in Chongqing in 1979, Muge currently lives in Chengdu, China. Founder of Muge Gallery. He received the Photographer of the Year Award from American photography magazine PND in 2013, and was selected as one of the most notable photographers born in the 1970s and 1980s by IMA Magazine, Japan.

Since 2005, Muge started his “Go Home” project to document the drastically changing landscapes on the way back to his hometown in Chongqing due to the Three Gorges water conservancy project. Facing the contradictions and hopelessness brought about by the tremendous changes in China’s social environment, Muge rethought his way of photographing and viewing and eventually started using a large-format technical camera to observe the still life at home and various things in nature. In his “Ash” series which began in 2010, Muge focused on three unchanging elements – mountain, water, and stone – through observing the traces of time and history, he attempted to comprehend the true essence of nature. Muge’s recent project “Behind the Wall” recorded his journeys around China from 2013 to 2018, traveling 128,658 kilometers along the boundary of the Great Wall and visited the villages in the north as he photographed the sites of the Great Wall and the people he encountered. The aim was to create a portrait of his home nation through its symbolic icon, attempting to develop a deeper understanding of China, his “home at large”. The concept of “home” which Muge has been continuously concerned with has expanded beyond his hometown. Beginning in 2019, Muge started a new project called “Bow Wave (Huí Liú)” along with photographers Feng Li and Zhang Kechun. They are traveling to bigger and smaller cities in China to present the current state of China through fieldwork, exhibitions and publications.

Muge’s photographs were featured in The New York Times; Le Monde magazine and Photography of China. His works have been exhibited in and out of China, including his solo exhibition “Behind the Wall” at Format Photo Festival in 2019; “40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography” at OACT Contemporary Art Terminal Shenzhen in 2018 and Three Shadows Photography Art Centre Beijing in 2017; “Chinese Contemporary Photography Exhibition” at Kunstraum Villa Friede in Germany in 2015; “The Rising of Dragon: Contemporary Chinese Photography Exhibition” at Katonah Museum of New York in 2012. His main publications are “Ash” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2013 for the first edition, 2019 for the new edition. Japan) and “Going Home” (Jiazazhi, 2014. China).

Gallery Exhibitions

Muge "ASH"

Dates: April 2 (Tue) — April 27 (Sat), 2013