ChenXueling
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CITY BLUE 2017-2020
"City Blue" is a presentation of my personal photography project "Urban Rental Project", which mainly focuses on office working people in the city. I rent myself out to them as a item, and the service are chatting, taking pictures and exploring the city with then. So far in 2017, I have rented myself 46 times. I entered their lives with a camera and photographed their desires and emotions. Due to the particularity of the project, most of the people who came to me were women, so I took a large number of private images of Chinese women. These works are also the results of my running-in period with the city. All my longing and misunderstandings have been separated and turned into soft instincts of desire.
There was a long walk from the subway line 2 to line 4 on my daily routine. Every time the crowd flocked here and looked up, Among all these wriggling heads, we are very close but so far away.During that time, I fell into a state of "aphasia", with endless negative emotions. I even wanted to rent someone to even just to talk to me. As a result, I rent out myself to others as an attempt to understanding among city strangers.
The project lasted from 2017 to 2020. I painted a group portrait with my camera of youth in China on various identities and locations.lawyers, screenwriters, executives graduated from Tsinghua University, film and television workers, tourism workers, financial industry workers, beauty industry workers, well-known brand managers, music creators, psychologists , employees of state-owned enterprises, new media workers, micro-businesses, yoga teachers, post-00s who come to Beijing for internships, students who are about to graduate...
Re-examining the rental of one's time, wandering through the streets and alleys of the city with tenants, from parks, restaurants, cafes, pubs, galleries, to the ruins of old buildings on the roofs of marketplaces, and to the tenants' rooms. This is a journey from public to private, from vigilance to openness, from unfamiliarity to familiarity, until capturing their relaxed, free and desirous side. Through the directional exploration of the relationship between lips, body and space, whether near or far, the work explores "virtual desire" and explains the fantasy fragments related to "sexual dreams". The arrangement of the work starts from the desire of the lips, reaches the emotions of the body, reaches the eruption of personal emotions and desires, and finally returns to personal calmness. When we are in the city, we are close and distant, tense and relaxed, and the moment when we wander aimlessly in the city may be the closest to it.
Urban Rent Project Description:
Strangers can find me to provide services for them by paying a certain fee. The content of the service is determined by the employer (as long as it is reasonable and not illegal). It may be to explore the city, find a rooftop or a ruin abandoned by the post-industrial era, Maybe it’s chatting all afternoon, or pouring out secrets that have been hidden for a long time, maybe pretending to be a girlfriend to meet parents, maybe visiting an old friend together, maybe just wanting to make this day a little different... Besides, I will Capture the day with a camera.