"Windows on The Hutong" is a new photo and sound installation by Russian-born and Beijing and Ireland-based artist Varvara Shavrova at Pekin Fine Arts in Beijing. The project is conceived as a multi-sensory portrait of old Beijing neighbourhoods where Shavrova has been living for the past five years. Rich and colorful images of windows illuminated by life and sound inside shows us glimpses of daily life in the old hutongs, where one feels the changes sweeping through the rest of the capital city have not yet come. Pekin Fine Arts promotes their artists' works with a Gallery Portfolio at absolutearts.com.
Today Beijing is undergoing intense modernization and whole neighbourhoods
like the street where Shavrova lives are swept away within days to give way to
new high rise developments. But some of the old laneways remain untouched,
with the slow medieval rhythm of life still ticking on inside its traditional
courtyards. The light boxes almost imitate the windows Shavrova photographs,
framed closely around the actual window frame and presented on a wall space,
they illuminate life and light just like the real windows one passes by and
gets a glimpse and a momentary encounter with someone else's daily life.
The sound installed directly next to the images intensifies this feeling of
being submerged into a slice of real Beijing. The bicycle passes by, locals
line up to buy some freshly fried dough sticks, old gentlemen play cards and
chess, baby is crying inside the bedroom, billiards balls move softly along
the table cloths, food is being prepared, chopped and fried for someone's dinner.
The sound and images were recorded on October 1st 2009, on the date when the
whole of China celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the foundation of the
People's Republic. Televisions all over the country and in the local hutongs
too transmitted the proud sights and sounds of the military parade followed by
lavish fireworks display and celebration concert.
The significance of this date and the artist's choice is obvious. When the
rest of the country is doing big and ambitious things, life on local level
continues unperturbed, and changes will take a while to arrive here.
View more from this exhibition at absolutearts.com>
Visit Pekin Fine Arts'Gallery Portfolio: galleries.absolutearts.com/pekinfinearts.
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