“CHINA 555”, a solo photography exhibition by Lao Xie Xie.
Curated by Watjanasin Charuwattanakitti
Exhibit: 3 APR 2020 – 26 JUL 2020
Location: Green Lantern Gallery
ACTIVITY
3 APR 2020 OPEN RECEPTION at 7 PM.
“I’m not a photographer, and I don’t want to become one,” says Lao Xie Xie with a laugh. “I just use a camera as a tool to make real what I have in my mind.” If that’s true, then his mind is a sublime and seamy place. The bare-skinned models and butcher-shop scraps, cropped to look like something out of a 90s punk zine, feel calculated to shock. No wonder he often labels his work with the hashtag #trashphotography. Quote from Neocha
“Lao Xie Xie” — This pseudonym roughly means “Mr. Thank You”, but is he an artist? A photographer? Or an ordinary man? Whatever he is, here is his exhibition “CHINA 555”. In Chinese, 5-5-5 is pronounced wǔwǔwǔ and a crying onomatopoeia, but in Thai, 5-5-5 or hahaha is the sound of laughter. The same number can contain the absolutely opposite meanings, and from different points of view, the same person in one certain moment can also be perceived diversely. “CHINA 555” is the exhibition representing the Yin and Yang of life, where one thing is forbidden by some and appreciated by others.
“If you carry a camera you are not a photographer; if you can make a plate of noodles you are not a chef,” says Lao Xie Xie, a Shanghai-based image-maker whose subjects exist in punk quarters of Shanghai, sexually liberated realm bordering on reality and dream. quote from Metalmagazine
My name is Lao Xie Xie. For reasons regarding the safety of my life in China, I like to keep my true identity hidden. Let’s say I’m just a human being who likes to express his vision of the world through the lens of an Olympus camera.” – Lao Xie Xie Quote from China-Underground
As one shīfu ( 师傅 | “Yoda” in Chinese) once remarked, “In a world that pushes us to be perfect, we have a duty to be different.” Quote by Nakid.online
