Chen Shen
Garden Metro
Garden Metro. This is a series dedicated to my hometown, Changping, Bejing, usually called the garden of Beijing; a suburb of eighteen districts. During the summer 2013, I went along the Changping metro line tracks. As proof of the compelling ambition and overwhelming speed of the development of the country, Changping metro line took only one year to complete, and became the fourteenth line in Beijing. However, this series is not merely a judgment of a certain scheme that tries to benefit the people but ultimately results in the exact opposite. It’s an epitome and allegory for the dilemma of the country.
China has recently exhibited a resurrection of the industrial revolution. A booming capitalist economy has shaken the old system of wealth, as rapid technological developments cannot wait to replace traditional living habits and the decline of ethical standards tolls the death of parting days.
My series is not meant to be simply an elegy for a loss of naturalism in modern society. China’s changes are even more fundamental and drastic. Socialism and its countless variations leave this land with an undeniable legacy, and an unbearable spiritual debt. The familiarity of these images aims to capture a conflict of loss and progress within reflective moments, recording the force of history through its absence in the present, and understanding the change from the perspective of unchanging.
Cranbrook Academy of Art
