Jiang Zhi “Love Letters, No. 5” 2011

#somereallygoodones, #jiangzhi, #loveletter, #flame, #flower, #impossible

It happens sometimes that I’ll be wandering around an art fair in my personal space, somewhere between a stupor and thrall, and there will be a photograph in front of me that stops me. This is a good thing. My feet have found me something I like.

In 2013 or so I happened to be in Amsterdam at the Unseen Art Fair which specializes in presenting work that has been made recently. Overall one hopes to see stuff that is fresh. It’s not always the case, but nevertheless hope springs … . The organizers charged me with selecting what I thought was the best work on view, I cannot remember exactly; however, it would have been this image by Jiang Zhi “Love Letters, No. 5” 2011.

The combination of image and this title indicates that the multi-disciplinary Mr. Jiang may have some unresolved issues about love.

I can report that I returned to this photograph repeatedly. The balance or tension between the delicacy and beauty of the orchid and the smoke and even flame is transfixing. It is a dance of transformation between life and death.

This is an impossible photograph, impossible like transgressive images of war and horror, or urban work by Enrique Metinides or Weegee or the artful constructions of Joel-Peter Witkin, impossible because they violate some conventions of restraint about death and morality.

This “Love Letter” not only crosses some line in what it depicts, but also the artist centers the flaming flower in the middle of the frame as a transition point in the color of the background from brownish to bluish.

Primal.

#somereallygoodones, #theunseeneye, #wmhunt, #collectiondancingbear, #collectionblindpirate, #greatphotographs, #howilookatphotographs, #collectingislikerunningaroundinathunderstorm hopingyoullbehitbylightning, #aphotographsogooditmakesyoufartlightning, #photographychangeditlifeitgavemeone, #jiangzhi, #loveletter, #flame, #flower, #impossible