Jingran Zhang: Linglong Pagoda
Born in 1991, Chengdu, China.
27.09.2020
Linglong Pagoda (2017-2020) is an ongoing photographic project by emerging artist Jingran Zhang exploring the local customs and religious aesthetics in western China under the change of the new era. Zhang are challenging our senses through a documentary-style mixed together with a surrealistic perspective, occasionally adding collage elements to capture various kinds of intersection and contrast like the one of technology and tradition, reality and representation, religion and the senses.
Curiosity and rebellion are probably his biggest motivation, having the goal of using as many perspectives and skills possible resulting in an experimental body of work that zigzags between disparate photographic genres: faceless figures, liturgical artifacts, and inexplicable oddities are all hallmarks of Zhang’s visual vernacular. Several of the photographs present characters looking at their mobile devices, looking away or have a burned-out face – creatures not fully readable or recognizable, often having a connection with technological or religious elements. Through his flair for eccentricities and an offbeat sense of humor, Zhang’s photography offers a uniquely different look at contemporary China. As if they had come out of Matrix, Jingran Zhang‘s images are a breath of fresh air in the murky pre-packaged world of Instagram, where several photographic trends have spread like wildfire in recent times. Only available on social media, we highly encourage to follow his work and the evolvement of his emerging practice.