Flat-pack (Shenyang & Chengdu)
Tapping into the wealth of the affluent urban population has been a key feature of China’s economic development. Shot over several years in Shenyang and Chengdu, these photographs look at the wholesale remodelling of two Chinese city centres into hubs of commerce. There are two aspects to the project which are presented here as diptychs: One set of photographs peek through the gaps in the advertising hoardings that border the construction and demolition sites, mixing the bright foreground detail with the reality of the sites behind. Distance, scale and detail are packed into tight compositions that capture the punchy and vivid impact of change. The wider street views show the front public space with city inhabitants going about their business in an unsettling, often chaotic, limbo space. The temporary mess of the streets and infrastructure emphasising the upheaval to the inhabitants homes, workplace and way of life.
