Dinu Li writes-
Before immigrating to England in 1973, my mother decided to take me, my brothers and sister to meet my uncle in mainland China. For all we knew, it may have been the 1st and the last time that we would meet him and his family. Before setting off on our journey to our motherland, I distinctly remember my mother dressing us with layers and layers of clothing. Each of us must have worn about 5 layers of everything. We were all baffled because it was a warm day, but she did not tell us why and we just thought it was funny how round we looked. As soon as we got to our uncle's house, this mystery was resolved as our extra layers of clothing were distributed amongst our many cousins. For this commission, I was interested to find out what illegal Chinese immigrants bring with them when they leave their motherland. To my surprise, I found out that some of them had collected soil from outside their front doors and carried it with them to England in their trouser pockets. By living a transitory existence, it is clear that illegal immigrants never carry too much with them. What are the most crucial items that they decide to bring? In this project, I wanted to explore the cultural interaction that takes place when materials are moved from one place to another.
Questions:
- How would you compare this work to the work of Nigel Sharfran, from Ch. 4? How is it similar? How is it different?
- How does Dinu's work relate the sense of how these immigrants have brought only a few items from their home country, and how important those items may be?
- How do you think the experience of viewing this work is different, having the explaniation of it's idea, than it would be without the explanation?
9 comments:
I find the photo with the baby shoes on the clothes hanger to be very poignant and the most striking. It really puts things into perspective and helps me understand the idea behind these photographs better. I couldn't imagine ever wanting something so desperately as to be willing to have so few material possessions such as clothes. It relates back to Li's story of her siblings and herself wearing the layers of clothing to give extras to her cousins who were in England illegally. These people have to live on a day-to-day basis and these photos help show that because of the few material possessions displayed in them. The state of the flats is sad too, but these people cannot really get them fixed up.
These photos are interesting because while they may not document a moment of international history, they document something that is important to an individual. I like to see how other people live and what is important and of value to them. It makes me realise that events happening in my life are worth documenting.
Wow, the subjects of these pictures look so familiar to me due to my Chinese background, however, interestingly, the setting and context in these photos are western style and very different. This seems like when two cultures collide. I like the first picture when Li captures the way how Chinese immigrants transform western style kitchen into a more eastern one.
I have a very same feeling when I working on my final project. No matter where I set my subject that I brought over from China, there is always a presence or feeling of western culture rather than a pure Chinese culture. However, this becomes so interesting to me because it is something that I've never experienced before. And these subjects could even obtain some new meaning with such different context.
These pictures are very interesting. It tells you alot about this family. It shows how much stuff they were able to bring or have. (So saddly)
I do like the pictures how they were compose or taken. When I look at the pictures it makes me look all around the photo. The one I like is the wall that has two different light colors trying to dominate the picture. The left side gives it a green color and other side bluish or whiteish color. Also that picture shows another picture, it is on the left side wall, it makes me curious of what it is. The second picture that I like is the closet picture. You can see how the camera was angle upward to take the picture. These picture gives me a sad feeling because it shows me that they don't have a lot of clothing. Too many empty hangers. Maybe they where getting ready to wash their clothing that's why their are many empty hangers. (Good light source).
I find this photographs very disturbing. Not in a bad way, but just knowing, seeing this pictures makes me think of all the things I take for granted. The pictures show the lack of life. Even though there are people living there, the empty hangers, empty walls, make it seem that the place has been deserted for sometime. The fact that they have to survive in those conditions makes me worder where my values are.
The composition and lighting of the pictures is very effective and well porportioned. I have to agree that my favorite one is the wall with the different lighting and shadows.
Each of these photos appear to be packed with emotions that are trying to speak to us. They show us the hardships and pain that immigrants had to go through to get to this country that we take for granted. Most of us, if not all, will never have to experience something like that in our life while others spend most of theirs wishing they didnt.
The picture that struck me the hardest was the picture of the wall corner, with a single photograph pinned on it. What would it feel like to live in a empty box of a room with nothing but a photo to remind you of the home you used to have? Personally I think I would go insane. That also shows how powerful the art of photography is. Each picture really is worth a thousand words, if not more.
The photographs present a very minimalistic feel and a sense of emptiness. The items presented in the images may seem very little and meaningless to us, but to the immigrants who left everything behind, the items have a strong emotional tie to the individual. As viewers we may never be able to comprehend the thoughts and emotions of the immigrants and the ties to the items they took, but we are given the oppurtunity to envision just how important these items really are to them just from these photos.
When first viewing it, and without explanation of the idea behind it, it just made me first think that it was snapped on the same idea behind what earlier was. But, after reading, it made me think deeper on the subject and dive more into the photo. I began to examine each, seeing what was left behind. I envisioned people in the photographs, imagining what they were doing. For instance, in the one with the blanket and the tweezers I automatically related for some reason. The closest thing I can think of is because, being a girl, I have wrapped up in a blanket and gotten tweezers and a mirror and sat on my bed and plucked my eyebrows. And it made me think there was perhaps a young girl present in this photo. In the other photos, it is just interesting to see what is left behind, particularly the photograph on the wall. My first reaction would be to keep such a photograph, for importance of salvaging some memories of the past. However, it wasn't taken, because as I can imagine, other things were more valuable in the movers eyes.
Without the explaination, I'd be basically "Apartment. Oh, that's nice" and move on. With the explaination, I've looked at the pictures closer, and really noticed the small details and little ways the people who live their have both adopted a new way of life while holding close the old.
I couldnt believe someone would want to be a karoke machine with them from a different country. I would think that would be the least thing I would have brought with me. I do not want something so desprately but maybe the things I need such as clothes. I feel that Li was trying to show that due to her background with her family, it showed me we need to be happy with what we have and not what we want. Sometimes things are more valueable than other things.
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