Contemporary By Angela Li

I went to see ‘Photography is No Longer Credible’ at the Contemporary Gallery in March, on the last weekend it was on. The exhibition consisted of a few big scale photographs of changing landscapes in China, by artist He Xingyou. It showed how China’s natural areas are being turned into urban developments, some of them now abandoned, and its purpose was to make people reflect on the future of China, through revealing what’s going on in some remote areas. The gallery was very quiet when I got there, which gave the atmosphere of the exhibition an even deeper feeling of reflection.
The pictures were displayed in both floors and they were big enough to appreciate all details in the photograph — some of them were certainly devastating. Even though there were around 10 pieces, it took me some time to go through them, just taking my time to understand the meaning of them all.
The gallery is a rather small place, split across two levels of quite plain walls. The space can be spot from a distance, as it’s covered by glass. They’ve been opened since 2008 promoting Chinese artists and showcasing all kinds of arts: sculpture, paint and photography, among others. In spite of the ‘crude reality’ that it showed, I did enjoy this exhibition and needed to share some thoughts with someone… as they are conveniently located in Hollywood Road, I called a friend for a catch up in Soho. Fifteen minutes later there we were enjoying a coffee in the heart of Central…