within a decade, skyscrapers have embraced the chinese urban landscape. symbols of china's recovered grandeur, they are certifying to the world its modernity.
born in hunnan in 1977, jiang pengyi was discovered at the lianzhou international photo festival 2007. a child of the reform policy, he is from a generation for whom construction and destruction are the completing heads of an accelerated development that has affected particularly the big cities. originally from a small village, he left at a really young age for a soulless city. having lived in beijing for more than 10 years, he expresses, with his photographic works, a deep social malaise. playground for architects from all over the world, metropolises are multilayered and anonymous.
in his series "all back to dust", the skysrapers, these a priori invincible towers appear obsolete. by changing the context thanks to digital techniques, jiang pengyi wants especially to make them look harmless. reduced, put upside down, mixed with plastic bags and rubbish, the buildings appear a lot less spectacular. "buy doing this, i felt a lot better" he said.
indeed, as the sacred buddhist texts said: "big things are also piles of dust". as any construction involves destruction, buried in wild grass, jiang pengyi's skyscrapers already appear as relicts of an old world, garbage in a new era, where nature has reclaimed its rights.
according to jiang pengyi, this apocalyptic vision seems milder than the modern reality.
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