Syncopation 错拍
Now / Elsewhere 此时 / 他方
Photography / Installation / Publication
2020-2021
Time folds, and it doesn’t fold neatly—our sense of “when” we are is a function of which fold we are sliding into, or climbing out of. A keen awareness of contemporaneity cannot but dissolve the illusion that some things, people, places, and practices are more “now” than others.
时间折叠，而且它并不整齐地折叠——我们对自己“何时”存在的感知，取决于我们正在滑入或爬出哪一个折叠。对当代性的敏锐意识必然会消解这样一种幻觉：认为某些事物、人、地方和实践比其他更加“当下”。
—Raqs Media Collective, Now and Elsewhere
Growing up between rural China and urban centers revealed to me the stark urban-rural divide. With my Sony camera, I document Chengdu’s borderlands—where city meets countryside, creating syncopated rhythms of development. In these spaces, traditional communities simultaneously resist and absorb urbanization through the cracks of civilization.
My photographic approach emphasizes fragmentation, flash, and visual distillation. Through the paired publications “Now” and “Elsewhere” and this exhibition, I create a dialogue between two perspectives of China's urban-rural borderlands. This deliberate separation reflects the dualities I observe: “Now” documents the overlooked textures of traditional life—intricate ironwork, weathered textiles, resilient plants growing through abandoned structures, and delicate spiderwebs—elements that exist in the present yet are fading. “Elsewhere” captures the luminous neon, LED displays, and modern architecture that represent an alternative reality developing simultaneously in the same geographic spaces.
Like musical syncopation that disrupts expected beats, these borderlands generate irregular yet vital patterns. The division into “Now” and “Elsewhere” embodies this syncopated rhythm—two realities existing simultaneously but at different tempos. Traditional elements persisting amid rapid development create visual off-beats, moments where past and future collide in unexpected harmonies. These images raise persistent questions: Will these in-between spaces be assimilated, erased, or allowed to maintain their unique syncopated existence? Such uncertainties reflect broader tensions in China’s rapid urbanization, where identity itself becomes fluid in the face of transformation.
乡村到城市的成长经历让我深感城乡鸿沟。携索尼相机，我记录成都城乡交界处的错拍发展节奏。在此，传统社区通过文明缝隙既抵抗又吸收城市化。
我的摄影手法强调碎片化、闪光灯和视觉提炼。通过“此时”和“他方”这两本相互呼应的摄影书以及本次展览，我在中国城乡边界地带的两种视角之间创造对话。这种刻意的分离反映了我所观察到的二元性：“此时”记录了传统生活中被忽视的质感——精致的铁艺、褪色的格子布、从废弃结构中生长的顽强植物和精细的蜘蛛网——这些元素存在于当下却正在消逝。“他方”则捕捉了霓虹灯、LED显示屏和现代建筑，它们代表着在同一地理空间中同时发展的另一种现实。
如同音乐中打破预期节拍的切分音，这些边界地带产生不规则却充满活力的节奏。“此时”与“他方”的分隔正体现了这种错拍节奏——两种现实同时存在却以不同的速度运行。传统元素在快速发展中的持续存在创造了视觉上的“错拍”，过去与未来在这些时刻以意想不到的方式碰撞融合。这些影像引发持续思考：这些中间地带是否会被同化、抹去，或被允许保持其独特的错拍存在？这些不确定性反映了中国快速城市化中的更广泛张力，身份认同在转型面前变得流动。
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