Shadow (Xiaoxue) Tian

The subversive force of a found image

My aim is to discuss the fragile quality of the photographic object, but also the equal fragility of our lives, our history and our memories.

These things are so easily lost with the passage of time; what we see in the present is only a fragment of a distant memory.

My concept is rooted in my everyday life. I often visit car boot sales where I find many precious objects that have been lost and abandoned by their owners. I decided to seek out family photograph albums. The photos contained in these albums depict anonymous people and have mysterious backgrounds.

As I collected more albums I was surprised at the similarities I saw between them: the subject's postures; the themes of the photos; their compositions; the number of individuals depicted; and the backgrounds these figures were set against.

The memories of these albums are woven together through these common elements, which lead the viewer to experience a new world and fantasy. Curiosity surfaces about the unknown memories that exist within this world, and about the resonance of collective memory.

I wish to explore this physically through the process of knitting together two overlapping images to constitute a new picture, and a new world behind it.