Art postcard, ”Hujialou #74” - Saana Wang
22016005
Art postcard based on Saana Wang's artwork ”Hujialou #74”. This postcard is part of a series of postcards based on artworks on the Aalto University campus.
Size: 10 x 15 cm
Hujialou is a body of 32 photographs by Saana Wang (b. 1979) in which the artist explores change. Hujialou is also a district in eastern Beijing. Young Saana first arrived there in 1991, accompanied by her parents. The capital, which used to be a city of dirt roads, has since undergone a huge transformation. Alongside urban structure and infrastructure, the changes have shaken all the cultural layers of China. In the Hujialou series of photographs, Wang conveys many levels of change, linking China’s transformation to his own personal life.
The photographs highlight the innocent encounter. In Wang’s works, the gaze and the encounter are elements independent of time. The photos are asking who the photographed people are looking at. The photographer? The viewer? Who?
One of the layers of the large-scale works is formed by the Chinese opera masks that Wang uses to separate the photos from the traditional, documentary aspect of photography.