Blue Algae In Dian Lake
Broken Trees In The South Moutain
Lime Hills In Guizhou
Still Water In Three Gorges
Cool Shanshui 酷山水 | Photographer: ZENG Han
The word of SHANSHUI® means mountain and water in China,not only means the real mountain and water in reality,it reflects more of people's imagination and yearn towards the natural landscape.Landscape Painting is the most important component part in Chinese art history.For the Chinese intelligentsia, Shanshui (the coexistence of mountain and water - a kind of ideal landscape) have long been considered the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe and reconciling the life of the individual and of society.
The series of Cool Shanshui is my way of observation and consideration to Chinese traditional landscape painting, at the same time the outcome of my observing and describing the present Chinese "Shanshui" while using the product of western science and culture----photography. Cool,its original meaning in Chinese is cruel,but with a direct translation of Cool,it also means fashionable and stylish. It is very appropriate to describe the present China in the process of change with this word,because the change not only represents the exciting high-speed development and prosperous phenomenon,but also reveals the ubiquitous and cruel breaking power.The afresh observation of Shanshui also prompts me to consider what an outcome it will produce if the tranditional orient civilization and modern western civilization integrate with each other? Will it be like the theme described so much in the science fiction moives: the combination of different genes always produces alien with exceeding energy and breaking power?
In China, the scholarly ideal of the Shanshui landscape blends with natural scenery in strange and interesting ways. Like the way in which the I-Ching describes fortune and misfortune intertwining to create a future that is always breaking in the present moment. To construct is to destroy, and the future becomes the past.
It is a commonly-held belief in China that the transience of life and the passing of time are inevitable. Thus, taking hold of the present should be the objective of both idealist and materialist alike.
By Hu Fang