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Shi Guorui (b. 1964, Shanxi Province) has mastered the camera obscura technique and is one of China’s foremost photographers. The surreal vision of his distinctive obscura images removes all activity from the image extracting the essence of his subjects, mainly landscapes and monuments, which are also sites of conflict and cultural significance. In recent years, he has traveled extensively between the US and China to document the sites of urban development and monuments that symbolize cultural, political and economic authority. His works collectively document a contemporary dialogue about the varied influences on China’s rapidly evolving global society.
Think about human activity in the long-term, in infinite space and time; indeed how brief, bleak, and fragile it all is…
Time and space are sacred realities. I am continually intrigued by the things that influence people and society to develop—by what allows life to go on. Camera obscura, this primitive image making method, is a fitting way for me to express myself and depict my version of reality. In my images, the material existence of an immediate reality seem to be real, yet fade out and disappear with an illusory quality—just as a landmark building may outlive our time and influence a future existence.
By means of depicting the connection of time and space, placing them in a constantly restless material world of history, reality and future, we question, reflect, and meditate…
-Shi Guorui
把人类的一些活动放在一个更长远，更扩大的时空之中，其实很短暂、灰暗、脆弱……
时间与空间是神圣的存在。我其实一直关注的是影响人类社会发展、生活进程的事物，针孔暗箱（Camera Obscura) 这种古老的原始成像方式，是能够契合我要陈述和表达的东西，在我的影像中，当下现实中似乎真实的物质存在因其幻化不定而消解隐遁，再比如某些地标建筑，也许干预和影响了某个时代和其他的存在。
通过讲述时间和空间的关系，把它们放在不断运动着的历史、现实与未来的物质世界之中，我们提问、反观和思考……
史国瑞
