Wound
Pattern
This series is built upon collages of Ernst Ohlmer’s photographs of the ruined Yuanmingyuan, taken in the aftermath of China’s war with the European allied forces in 1860. Following their circulation, local photographers began to echo his approach, contributing to the emergence of a transnational visual culture of ruins in China. Onto these fractured architectural remains, I trace lines of cooked rice, inscribing the ruins with patterns that ‘translate’ the traumatic memory of a nation forced into modernity as tangible wounds.
This series is built upon collages of Ernst Ohlmer’s photographs of the ruined Yuanmingyuan, taken in the aftermath of China’s war with the European allied forces in 1860. Following their circulation, local photographers began to echo his approach, contributing to the emergence of a transnational visual culture of ruins in China. Onto these fractured architectural remains, I trace lines of cooked rice, inscribing the ruins with patterns that ‘translate’ the traumatic memory of a nation forced into modernity as tangible wounds.
