Wang Ningde has achieved something remarkable. In “Some Days” he has created a series of photographs with a mood thatis instantly recognisable as his. This mood incorporates nostalgia, memory and dreams.

What are we aware of when we close our eyes to sleep? Either nothingat all or that strange awareness when we dream. The dream is assembled by our unconscious minds from essential elements of our experiences.

One of the essential elements in Wang Ningde's photographs is the closed eyes, or at least the absence of open eyes. Another element is the Mao suit. Sun Yat-Sen designed the jacket, rejecting the elegance of traditional Chinese clothing and the style of Western dress. The absurd result is that this perversely unaesthetic garment became the emblem of communist China, it's strange simplicity matching the strange simplicity of the society that adopted it.

In the photographs of the series “Some Days” not all the subjects wear Mao suits, not all show eyes that are closed, but all contain essential parts of the dream. Wang Ningde has distilled 20th CenturyChinainto its pure elements.

王寧德完成了一些值得令人注意的事情。在 「某一天」的作品中我們可以看見他所編織出的那些情緒,已經讓人迅速地能掌握到,那是屬於王寧德的。而那是一種充滿鄉愁、記憶和夢的情緒。

當我們閉上眼睛進入睡眠時,是否察覺到了些什麼呢?是全然無意識,抑或展開一種如夢境般奇妙的感覺。夢,是由現實經驗做為本質而延伸出的潛意識所集聚而成。王寧德作品裡其中一個重要的元素在於閉闔的眼睛,或者是說,睜眼動作的缺席。另個元素則為毛裝(中山裝)。這件由孫中山先生所設計的衣著,透露著對中國傳統優雅服飾以及西洋服飾的某種否決。然而,諷刺的是,這套實用乏美觀的衣著而後輾轉成為了中國共產黨的象徵標誌。它所有的奇特單純特色正好搭上中國共產的簡陋單純。

在「某一天」系列作品裡,並非所有的攝影主體都穿著中山裝,也並非所有人的眼睛都是閉闔著的,但均帶有「夢」的元素在其中。二十世紀中國的純粹,在王寧德的影像裡,已經完整地被淨化其中。

Artist Profile

WANG Ningde

Born in May, 1972. Kuandian Country, China.
1995 Graduated from Photography Department at Luxun Academy of Fine Arts.Currently lives and works in Beijing

Publications & Prints