Wang Lang
The Real and the Apparent (Detail)
Digital photograph mosaic on canvas (2008)
Limited edition prints available in three canvas sizes
Small: 80 x 124 cm (4 + 1 AP)
Medium: 110 x 170 cm
Large: 136 x 210 cm
The dialectic between the individual picture elements and the larger image they form give free reign to the viewer's own imagination and experience. Most of the pixels range from the equivalent of Chinese pennies to one, five, ten, and twenty yuan denominations, rather than the larger 50 and 100 Chinese yuan notes, hinting at the poverty of the miner and his struggle to make a living. Or perhaps even suggesting the miner's entire existence centres around risking his life to engage in a bitter, dirty and dangerous job merely to scrape by. This struggle defines his reality.
The layered sense of depth to the work really comes to life on canvas as compared to the on-screen image.
Site Curator,
Chris Harry
An excerpt from the artist on this work:
In 2007, I began to focus more deeply upon the most basic element of visual images – ‘pixels’. Our era of electronic imagery allows the principle of ‘pixels’ to become more explicit: all images are constructed from ‘pixels’ and these ‘pixels’ are actually infinitely divisible. I noted their ‘virtuality’ as the most basic constituent element of images. For example, the surface ‘pixels’ of a young miner’s portrait can be in the form of various images of scattered coins and paper currency symbolising poverty and survival.
Wang Lang
The Real and the Apparent (Detail)
Digital photograph mosaic on canvas (2008)
Limited edition prints available in three canvas sizes
Small: 80 x 124 cm (4 + 1 AP)
Medium: 110 x 170 cm
Large: 136 x 210 cm
The dialectic between the individual picture elements and the larger image they form give free reign to the viewer's own imagination and experience. Most of the pixels range from the equivalent of Chinese pennies to one, five, ten, and twenty yuan denominations, rather than the larger 50 and 100 Chinese yuan notes, hinting at the poverty of the miner and his struggle to make a living. Or perhaps even suggesting the miner's entire existence centres around risking his life to engage in a bitter, dirty and dangerous job merely to scrape by. This struggle defines his reality.
The layered sense of depth to the work really comes to life on canvas as compared to the on-screen image.
Site Curator,
Chris Harry
An excerpt from the artist on this work:
In 2007, I began to focus more deeply upon the most basic element of visual images – ‘pixels’. Our era of electronic imagery allows the principle of ‘pixels’ to become more explicit: all images are constructed from ‘pixels’ and these ‘pixels’ are actually infinitely divisible. I noted their ‘virtuality’ as the most basic constituent element of images. For example, the surface ‘pixels’ of a young miner’s portrait can be in the form of various images of scattered coins and paper currency symbolising poverty and survival.
Wang Lang