Wang Wei
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Standard Room, Image 11 has been selected to exhibit in the British National Portrait Gallery Taylor Wessing Portrait Photographic Prize Exhibition, which opened in November 2008. We will also be showing her work at the London Art Fair in January 2009.
The Standard Room Series came about as a creative diversion from a fairly 'standard' assignment. Asked to photograph the disappearing buildings in Qianmen, south of Tiananmen Square, Wang Wei began to explore the historical relevance of the area. The current destruction of the area, in order to clear the way for a wide, unobstructed approach to the world famous Square, is common knowledge amongst Beijingers. In the past however, the old, now unused, train station just south east of Tiananmen, saw thousands of travelers arriving directly into Qianmen. The area was known for itsvillage like qualities and the small hotels that opened to provide for these large numbers of visitors. Wang Wei estimates that there may have been over 150 of these hotels operating in the area at one time.
Her original assignment was to photograph the outside of the buildings but her interest drew her more to what was happening inside them. Wang Wei wanted to record the Qianmen changes on a different level so after she had completed the assignment, she went back to the area to focus on her private work based in and around the hotels and the people within them. She did a series of photographs featuring the workers at the hotels, guestsand internal scenes. Looking over her contact sheet, Wang Wei realized that the pictures of the fuwuyuan (service staff) were the strongest and told the most interesting and compelling contemporary story.
Dowload PDF18.01.1976, born in Guiyang, China
Currently living and working in Beijing
Education
9.2002- 9.2003 Photography, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
9.1994- 9.1998 BFA, Art History, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Selected Exhibitions
06.11.2008 – 15.02.2009, Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008, National Portrait Gallery, London
02.12.2007 - 16.09.2007, LOOK AT IT THIS WAY, 798 Red T Space, Beijing, China
7.07 - 16.09.2007, CHAI-NA / CHINA, Les Recontresd'Arles, Arles, France
24.09.2006 - 07.01.2007, TOTALSTADT/Beijing CASE, ZKM museum, Karisruhe, Germany
Book Publications
9.2005-10.2005 Portraits for Beijing CASE
Selected Magazine Publications
ELLE DECO (Beijing)
National Geographic Traveller (Beijing)
c_design (Beijing)
ILook (Beijing)
Newsweek (USA)
Time (USA)
Art Asia Pacific (USA)
Vanity Fair (Italy)
Condé Nast Traveller (Italy)
l'uomo vogue (Italy)
Flash Art (Italy)
Telegraph Magazine (UK)
For full details, please contact us.