Mr. Four Fingers

Last week I went and saw the Sheng Qi "History in Black and Red" show at the Andrew James Art Gallery. Looking back at the images I took at the show along with reading the catalogue of the work, I still am not sure how I feel about the work. I was recently printing some photographs at a studio, and noticed a young man picking up his work. They laid out these very nice large scale black and white prints, but then I noticed that he had photo shopped the one part of the image, for instance a house, and made it blue. It was awful and amusing at the same time.  I have seen much of this done here while living in China, and if Sheng Qi is incorporating these ideas into this series then I think it works. 

On the other hand I am tired of all the drips. It has been way over done recently, and Sheng Qi's series is no different. The newspaper images of the Communist Revolution and Mao, seem repetitive and overplayed. I want to see something new, such as the works  of the women officers holding the 100 kuai bills. 

In the end "History in Black and Red" was worth seeing, but fell short of my expectations. I think the work was so close to being good, but something is off for me, I'm lost in the drips...