sitting in china: the exhibition combines large format still life photographs of chairs with vernacular chairs and footstools ..............................................
......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary
august 2003 sitting in china by michael wolf september 6 to november 16, 2003 kestner museum, hannover, germany http://www.kestner-museum.de the exhibition combines large format still life photographs of chairs and journalistic photographs documenting the topic of sitting in china, with vernacular chairs and footstools collected by wolf during his many trips to the people’s republic of china. taking the theme of 'sitting' as an example, the exhibition creates interest and understanding in respect to the most highly populated cultural and economic region in the world. michael wolf's photographs document the beauty of the ugly, the stretching of time, the art of improvisation ... from some overstuffed chairs to worn stools in the streets of beijing, the compelling images capture many facets of this large country - from its chairs to the mindset of its people. if you have never heard of 'bastard chairs' before, you will now be able to discover them. 'they are not elegant, nor are they always comfortable. but neither are they mass-produced: they are individuals. in china, the objects used for sitting are as manifold as the occasions for sitting. each chair and stool has its own character, is a companion, a bastard, or a venerable elder. their occupants sit close to the floor, introspective, watching the world go by, without the pressure of time. but a photographer trying to document such a scene quickly becomes the focus of attention: people passing by wonder what is going on; the person on the chair assumes a pose, though the intent was to catch him or her unawares. sometimes, a photographed chair was immediately confiscated by its owner: having lost its anonymity by being singled out as a photographically noteworthy object, it became an object of embarrassment, too shoddy to come once again into the camera's viewfinder.' says michael wolf. photographing a broken chair in a beijing street, he is surrounded by an angry crowd. 'you are a foreigner who is trying to show how backward the chinese are,' an old woman hisses. wolf defends himself, explaining that to her the chair is not ugly but timeworn. the crowd is not convinced. the police are summoned, and smash the chair as a thing of shame. his accusers are half -right. wolf says that he is interested in the 'beauty inherent in used objects.' --- the exhibition 'sitting in china' is shown by the deutscher werkbund nord in collaboration with the regional capital of hanover in the kestner-museum hanover from 6 september to 16 november. thanks to the organizational help and sponsorship of the german office manufacturer wilkhahn this exhibition is being shown to the public for the first time on the occasion of the icsid congress 2003 (international council of societies of industrial design, 5 - 13 september in hanover/berlin). --- michael wolf was born in munich in 1954. he grew up in the usa and studied at UC berkley and with otto steiner at the folkwang school in essen. he has been living and working as a free-lance photographer and author in china for nine years. wolf has been intensively concerned with the topic of daily culture for some years. his most recent work deals with the issue of the cultural identity of the city of hong kong. http://www.photomichaelwolf.com --- curated by andreas schmid, born in stuttgart in 1955. he now lives and works as an artist and organizer of exhibitions in berlin. since his studies of classical chinese calligraphy and the history of art in the people’s republic of china in the 1980s, he has been regarded as an expert in the field of contemporary chinese art. andreas schmid currently has a teaching assignment in modern chinese art at the hochschule für bildende künste in dresden / dresden art academy. --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------	sitting in china © michael wolf © michael wolf a 'bastard' chair © michael wolf traditional images © michael wolf metal images © michael wolf folding images © michael wolf basement images © michael wolf backrest images © michael wolf another 'bastard' chair images © michael wolf