Some Days 63
Wang Ningde
王宁德
Production date
2009
Object Detail
Media
gelatin silver print
Measurements
50 x 40 cm
Notes
Wang Ningde’s black and white silver gelatine prints, with their slight sepia tone, are instantly understood as connoting the past; his staging of posed figures in carefully designed settings may be read as cinematic slices of a larger narrative. Their deliberate artificiality hints at the absurd juxtapositions found in dreams, but they are also Wang’s comment on Chinese history: he shares a dark sense of humour with other Chinese writers, artists and film-makers who reflect on the psychic scars left by the Cultural Revolution. This was a time, he says, that caused ‘catastrophic change and distortion in people’s psychological states.’ Wang Ningde combines sardonic wit with sadness, a satirical view of past absurdities with tenderness. As Wang continued to mine a seam of memory, locations and props became less important, backdrops became minimal and photographs are clearly shot in the studio. Some Days 63 (2009) shows an older man caressing a white cat. His eyes are closed and even the cat is turned away from us. Wang Ningde says powerful emotional and physiological states, including dreaming, sex, and even death, feature closed eyes. These inward-turning faces might also, however, be refusing, for their own self-protection, to see difficult truths.
Accession number
2017.046