In this exhibition, we use the fantasy novel Flowers in the Mirror by Li Ruzhen, a literary master of the Qing Dynasty, as a basis to connect a group of artists with different styles. In the name of flowers, through different visual spectra and image discourses, we create a spiritual resonance with a group of friends. Li Ruzhen wrote this novel to satirize himself as a "scholar in the Heavenly Empire". The book describes many strange and supernatural things, lists strange birds and beasts, strange customs and wonders, bizarre and weirdo, and classical talents, which are also very numerous and elaborated into a masterpiece.
Chen Zhihua: Mobile phone photo with dark box photography
Leungmo: Documentary with Digital Camera
Lai Wei: 8*10 Large format traditional gelatin silver works
The 5A1 Art Space "Flowers in the Mirror" photography exhibition covers a variety of photography techniques and languages from ancient times to the present. Visitors can witness the development of photography in the exhibition. Starting from the classical cyanotype, this technique uses the unique charm of Prussian blue to show the simple beauty of the image; to wet plate and dry plate film photography, its delicate texture and historical precipitation are inspiring.
Then there is large-format photography, with its precise details and depth of the picture, presenting the life charm of the "flowers" in the image. In addition to traditional photography, there are black box and infrared photography. The former is like a secret treasure in the boudoir, containing a hazy interest, while the latter reveals the subtle spectrum hidden in the flower shadow beyond the field of vision of the naked eye.
Zhang Yiping: Wet Plate Classical Process
Billy Yiu: Cosmos Photography
Chun Wai: Grating Industrial Photo
He Baoshan: Cyanotype Classical Technology
The exhibition also incorporates the pioneering practice of contemporary photography techniques. Mobile phone photography, with its portability and immediacy, captures the fleeting beauty of "flowers" in an instant; AI image generation breaks through the boundaries of human imagination, and uses the wisdom of digital algorithms to construct a new realm of flower shadows that seems real and illusory, making the classics and the modern, and the tradition and the future complement each other.
Qin Hui: Traditional slow shutter photography techniques
The photography exhibition "Flowers in the Mirror" makes full use of the full spectrum of photographic art language, and from another perspective it can be regarded as a small review of the history of photography. From the simplicity and elegance of traditional manual techniques to the strangeness and exquisiteness of modern technology, the diversity of photographic techniques under the same theme, 5A1 and our companions create an art feast that transcends time and media. Visitors wandering in it may be able to appreciate the profound meaning of shape and shadow, quality and soul in the image world between the virtual and the real.
Buddhists say: "One flower is a world, one tree is a floating life." Poets, philosophers and photographers have an epiphany and an improvement with all things in the universe in the process of the growth and development of a flower and a leaf.
