Daydream – Chen Nong

Chen Nong was born in Fuzhou (China) in 1966. He lives and works in Shanghai. His work is striking in the way in which he fuses different ideas and thematic levels, in a single vision. Chen Nong starts with black and white photographs which he then paints by hand, as in the eight single images of the “San Xia” series, in which workers / soldiers pose in front of the “Diga delle Tre Gole”, an eco-monster created by a man who has become an important theme in Chinese culture and has caused the distortion of a landscape and the displacement of 1 million people. In these works, a row of workers standing in front of the dam wear a paper armor (made by Chen Nong) recalling the mythical terracotta army, which came to light in China in 1974. A new army that for China has been the engine of economic recovery in recent decades. The use of paper, the Chinese and Asian tradition of origami and the practice of hand-colored photography are all themes that cite the old customs of Chinese culture. The contrast between terracotta, heavy and light paper, immersed in dramatic light, make these figures an army of morality. The panorama is reminiscent of a classic style and, moreover, the format of the eight images also reflects the historical Chinese tradition of storytelling on rolls of paper typical of Shan-shui. In the same way, Chen Nong continues his narration without a central perspective, almost “unrolling” before our eyes a continuous story in the balance between reality and fantasy.