Aug 2

Shijia Song

Shijia Song is a conceptual photographer who has exhibited consistently in London and has participated in various photography festivals in China. Notable exhibitions in London include participation at Saatchi Gallery, Blanc Gallery, Decagon Gallery, and Litehouse Gallery. Photography venues Shijia has participated in China include Photo Beijing, Wuxi photography Festival, and Pingyao International Photography Festival. He has also filmed and produced an independent documentary film titled Tongzi Lou in 2020.

The article will mostly focus on Shijia’s poetic series of underwater photographs known as In the Bath In the Water. These photos display portraiture of various angles of a female figure taking an indoor bath, with close up shots of portions of her anatomy. Like an ecological installation, the photographs are carefully integrated into a landscape of a shallow pond, carefully submerged into the clear, crisp water and held down with round stones. Rather unusual to see photography prints literally treated like a conceptual installation, especially against a backdrop of nature, as most artists typically set up installations with three-dimensional objects.

As a concept, In the bath In the Water series conveys a sense of cleansing as the figure becomes bathed in a manufactured shower while her image becomes soaked in a shallow creek or pond with pristine, clear water. Shijia points to the purpose of contemporary image-making in regards to reflecting concepts by direct action in an installation. His goal was to depict the idea of purity, cleanliness, and rejuvenation not simply by photographing the action of bathing but by also integrating these images with a natural landscape of water. Shijia creates a synthesis between illusory perception of an action and the literal performance of an activity through submersion in water of the illusion.

Minimalist photography by Shijia Song usually depicts landscape ghostly scenery, representations of shattered glass, snow, and interiors. These studies in surfaces create almost monochromatic compositions which reflect abstracted fields of vision even though based on the capturing of literal subjects. Probably digitally altered in Photoshop, the photographs are meditative, serene, and convey a sense of unification and wholeness. Your average daily stimulation entails fragmented images, colors, put together in pieces which makes these particular works unusual in regards to their consistent, consolidated presence.

Shijia Song creates subtle, conceptual photography which communicate themes on human psychology, our relationship with nature, and creative manipulation in representing two dimensional presentations. Although Shijia works through many series of works, many of which are quite journalistic in representation, his photographic installations of In the Bath In the Water series and minimalistic photography are the focal points of his portfolio. Through these specific works of art, Shijia presents a refreshing take on photography not as an instrument of illusory representation but rather as a tool which represents integrating illusions with physical environments and turning representational spaces into flattened forms of texture and surface. Shijia remains an artist who breathes unique application towards contemporary photographic principles.