SHI Guorui

Born:

1964

Residence:

Beijing, China

Nationality:

Chinese

Trust:

APT Beijing

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PRESS & PUBLICATIONS

10 Chancery Lane Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition titled "Light Frequencies: Camera Obscura Images of Hong Kong", on view through April 23, 2017.
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The 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, is hosting 'Light Frequencies: Camera Obscura Images of Hong Kong' by Shi Guorui, on view through April 23, 2017.
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10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, is presenting works of Shi Guorui, titled ‘Light Frequencies: Camera Obscura Images of Hong Kong’, at the Art Basel Hong Kong 2017, on view through April 23, 2017.
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A solo exhibition titled “Light Frequencies - Camera Obscura Images of Hong Kong” presenting the latest series of pictures taken by renowned Chinese photographer Shi Guorui (born in 1964, Shanxi) will be on view at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong from February 23 through April 23, 2017.
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10 Exhibitions Opening This Week
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Beginning with his 2002 conversion of one of the Great Wall’s watchtowers into a camera obscura (also known as a pinhole camera), Shi Guorui has employed large-scale, often site-specific camera obscuras as his primary method of artistic production. He added the photogram to his repertoire of techniques in 2005, when conceptualizing works for his solo exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Confining his artistic practice as he does to methods favored during the nineteenth-century, Shi Guorui stands in opposition to the tide of digital photography and all that it implies, most notably speed and convenience.

Not only does Shi Guorui pursue a slow process; that process is also markedly inefficient. His output as a photographer remains small, due to the fact that each exposure is unique. If he produces a series of four images of a particular vista, each image will be slightly different depending on light conditions, and they will not be reproduced in an edition because there is no negative from which to create additional images. Photographing the Great Wall, for example, in five days he was able to complete only three photographs.

The lengthy exposure required by the camera obscura process removes all activity from the resulting images, producing a distinctively surreal view. His subjects, mainly landscapes and monuments, are sites of conflict and cultural significance. In recent years, Shi Guorui has traveled extensively between the United States and China to document the sites of urban development and monuments that symbolize cultural, political and economic authority—for example, the construction site where the Twin Towers formerly stood, Times Square, the Hollywood sign, Las Vegas, the Shanghai Bund, San Francisco viewed from Alcatraz, and the new China Central Television building.

Shi Guorui is represented by L&M Arts in Los Angeles and 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Hong Kong. He lives and works in Beijing, China.

Selected collections: Fonds National d'art Contemporary, Paris, France; The M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Guangdong Fine Art Museum, China; Sigg Collection, Switzerland; Herzog & de Meuron Architekten AG, Switzerland; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami.

Suggested Reading: Britta Erickson, “Shi Guorui and the Slow Process,” in Katherine Don and Britta Erickson, Shi Guorui: Rebirth. Camera Obscura Works by Shi Guorui 2001-2011(Los Angeles: L&M Arts, 2011), pp.1-9.

For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art

ARTWORKS

Guorui SHI

Times Square New York 3 October

Guorui SHI

Shenzhen (Time is money)