Chinese Garden 4
Dong Wensheng
董文胜
Production date
2005
Object Detail
Media
gelatin silver print
Measurements
78 x 78 cm
Notes
Dong Wensheng’s Chinese Garden series of 2005 is inspired by the melancholy beauty of southern Chinese gardens, enclosed and highly artificial landscapes seen here as a metaphor for China’s history. Shot in gardens in the southern city of Changzhou, they feature sculptural arrangements of ‘Taihu’ rocks (weathered, pitted limestone rocks from Taihu Lake in Jiangsu were highly prized additions to garden design), pools and waterfalls, pavilions with lanterns hanging from upturned eaves, and spindly pine trees. Dong introduces surreal and disquieting elements into the idyllic miniature worlds created by the garden designers: in Chinese Garden 4, a small spotted deer appears like an intruder from the natural world. This work recalls a famous image in the history of Chinese photography: pioneering entrepreneurial photographer Liang Shitai’s albumen print, Seventh Prince Feeding Deer (1887), shows the prince (father of the Guangxu Emperor) posing with a small deer, a symbol of longevity.
Accession number
2014.132