Fan Dongwang
Chinese-Australian Artist
范东旺 - 澳洲华裔艺术家
Photography
Dragon Land
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
Fan Dongwang
This collection of photographic collages depicts the land of the dragon - China's past and present. During the project period Chinese Australian artist Fan Dongwang went to China to take a number of photos for the creation of his mixed medium work titled Dragon Land. These works illustrate the huge change and dilemma China now faces: A rapid modernisation into an international commercial city had obliterated the old city, the very structure of the country had been dismantled and a new world had emerged. Dragon Land represents a snapshot of this new Chinese world. As a Chinese born artist who now works and lives in Australia, Fan Dongwang was wandering in the Shanghai streets but could not find the old familiar streets and places of his youth. Lost in his hometown, he found himself curiously Australian, a foreigner in a re-imagined city. The city was flooded with western icons (like KFC) and western influence. But strangely enough, the old Chinese icons (like the dragon) have not diminished but re-emerged into an unprecedented level. The old dragon - icon of power and protection - acquires new meanings of capitalism and consumerism. Globalization and postmodernism is the driving force behind the building of this new world Dragon Land. These images are organized in pairs to give deeper meanings of the situation they represent: past and present, communism and capitalism, old and new, rich and poor, family and work, art and culture, the rising of dragon, the change of beliefs, anger and happiness, life and death.