Chen Qiulin’s photograph, I am an angel, is a piece of performance art that displays the photographer’s discomfort toward the demolition of Chinese houses. The two subjects first stand out to the viewers are the angelic female figure and the ruined house. By introducing the human figure and the site, Qiulin highlights the contradiction between the purity of the woman and the dirty environment. The picture creates a dialogue between the people’s ideal living environment and the government-made living condition. Chen utilizes this picture to evoke the idea that people are the victims who pay the price for government’s impudent destruction. (wonderful ideas. Is it possible to centralize a specific one that you’ll analyze?)
The photographer choose to locate the pure woman within the impure destruction. Picturing from a distant angle, Chen makes the woman appear smaller, which seems she is overwhelmed by the rubbles. The angelic identity implies the Chinese culture, which is smothered by the demolition. The decision made by government of demolishing Chinese houses has severely damaged the culture value within the house. Although some culture will still be remembered by people from the history book, it has no place to be shown in the real life. When people come and visit the site, things that are obvious to their eyes are the rubbles and ruins, and the culture value of the architecture has became unnoticeable like the small angel that stays at the corner. Through Chen’s purposeful composition, he picture implies that the impurity environment created by demolition is blinding people’s eyes from seeing the remained purity, Chinese culture. In other words, the Chinese culture is disappearing due to the impact of demolition. (if the female figure surrounded by the rubble is the focal point of the composition, then address their relationship. try not to go too far and too general, such as Chinese culture or cultural values)
Although inside the house, the woman is not looking at anything around her but string at the sky through the hole on the celling. Qiulin designs the look of the woman in order to draw a contrast between the ideal in woman’s mind and the reality she refuses to look at (good point: social reality through the female gaze). At here, the woman can simply represent a normal Chinese girl (how about named as angel?). The girl is going to her classroom where is her favorite place because, in the classroom, she learns knowledge and has wonderful conversations with her classmates. Now, because of the demolition, the classroom disappears (if so, then you may focus on the visual term of “site”) and is turned into ruins. There is no more education for the girl, and all her friends go away. Staring desperately at the sky, the girl knows her classroom will never return, and she just wants to leave this place.
(in addition to …. ) The brown and black color on the rubbles creates a gloomy atmosphere, highlighting the despair of reality. The White color light from the windows represent hope, but the windows are all too tall for the girl to reach. Qiulin applies the use of color to clearly portrait the sadness of the people affected by demolition and shows their good old memories will never return just as these unreachable windows (may use this statement as topic sentence).
The photographer gives special attention to the debris in this abandoned house. Qiulin strategically let the rubbles take over half of the picture. Following her point of view, we witness a catastrophe. The ruins present a devastating condition which can be drawn parallel to the aftermath of an earthquake or a terrorist attack. Unfortunately, this is all the artwork presented by the government. Giving debris the focal point, Chen criticizes the government’s demolition decision is an absolute disaster. From people’s point of view, the Chinese government is just like terrorist who are destroying Chinese architecture along with the beautiful memories in people’s mind. (may organize the figure and the ruins together)
By picturing the girl from a distant angel, using colors, and giving debris the focal point, Qiulin has successfully given life and meanings to this picture. The losing of the Chinese culture (try not to make general statement), the despair of people, and the barbaric action of government altogether illustrate that people are the victims who pay the price for government’s impudent destruction. I hope the government will recognize their mistake one day. Although the buildings they demolished will be replaced by fancier architecture, the memories these buildings carry are priceless and can never be replaced.
Citation:
https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/ECO/2017_ECO_15077_7025_000(chen_qiulin_i_am_an_angel_no3).jpg?mode=max