Paradoxically, the idiosyncrasy of any city is at risk of vanishing among the lights
and glamour, marketing and publicity that often accompany the organisation of
a big event. Shanghai, the financial capital of China where Expo 2010 was held,
is no exception.
‘The Other Shanghai’ is a portrait of what life looks like in Shanghai and how
this is lived outside the Expo precinct. It is a photographic attempt to keep alive
and display some of the other Shanghainese culture and behaviour for
everybody’s eyes, including returning “Expo- only - visitors” to “all-year-round”
tourists in liverpool , locals and anyone interested in cultures from all over the
globe. In short, a photo-story that we wish to present in book and gallery (exhibition)
formats as it brings the two different cultures of Shanghai and Liverpool closer together.
There is always a story behind an image, but it is not less true that sometimes an image is all you need to start a story.
‘The Other Shanghai’ started here, in Yue Yang road, former French Concession (2009), when after taking photos of a dressed up manikin against a graffiti wall, we attempted to have a drink in the pub across the road. It was only when we noticed the “sorry-we-are-closed” sign hanging off the window that we came across the name of the place: Abbey Road Pub.
As both artists and adopted “liverpudlians”, aware of the historical links between Liverpool and Shanghai, we felt the need to tell a story about some aspects of Shanghai’s idiosyncrasy through the lens. The aim was to complement the views and impressions of Shanghai that the public would get through all the marketing and publicity displayed as part of Expo 2010.
A 16 hours flight provides anyone with time to do some of that “pre-holiday homework” that we all need to do before arriving at our destination.
That the British were the first to establish their concession after the second Opium War and the trade links between China and Britain took place via the ports of Shanghai and Liverpool is something we learnt from a travel guide. And also that the gateway to Chinatown in Liverpool is the entrance to the oldest Chinese community in Europe.
However, what we never found in any book or guide but in the streets of the Bund is that “coloured-hair” manikins displayed in a shop window could evoke “Britishness” somehow [ Hairdressers accessories shop in the Bund, former British Concession (2009)]. Nor that both a sense of historical “freedom” and “open attitude to the world” could be dragged in the flight of a kite over People’s Square in Huangpu District (2009).
Two days and a few dozen photographs after we had arrived in Shanghai we realized that the sense of “open-city-in-a-communist-country” that is given off from this Chinese city also applies to the way in which Shanghainese people get on with their lives… This observation along with a stroll through places like the Antiques Market (2009), Hennan Nan Lu (2009), Jingxiiu Lu (2009) and some of the less popular streets of the former French Concession (2009) where we had the opportunity to interact with the Shanghainese brought about the need to reply with the lens to one of the most famous quotes cited by Lennon so far only regarded as a point of discussion for a “beer debate” on a Friday night in Lark Lane. One could expect people to have different takes on the quote “ life was what happened to us whilst we were busy making other plans” … Not in Shanghai though where “life” is what we simply observed as being what took place “outdoors” everyday .
Among those things happening outdoors, art is included. Sometimes it happens in a conventional way, in the form of canvas, posters, objects of all sorts, with or without reminiscences of china’s Mao legacy [Art Gallery by Henan Lu ( 2009) and Chenghuang Miao (2009)]. On other occasions, art simply occurs not only outdoors and spontaneously, but also unexpectedly [Old City (2009)]
In Shanghai, like any of the other financial capitals in the world, there’s also room for hundreds of “howevers”. After dealing with ethical considerations we captured a quite significant one [Metro Station (2009), [Remin Park (2009)].
And in spite of the pollution, the daily concert from dozens of non-stop tower cranes at both sides of the river, the lack of enough museums and other tourist attractions, we managed to freeze some charm in the form of ... [what?] [The Pudong (2009)]
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