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2024

Sunflower: Reverberations of Self

Venue
San Sheng Art Space
Dates
May 4 – 19, 2024 · CONTACT Photography Festival
Artists
Hu Yang
Source
Installation view, San Sheng Art Space, 2024
Curatorial note

The exhibition invites audiences on a voyage of self-exploration. Moving beyond his signature documentary style, Hu Yang turns the lens inward to explore memories and emotions with great depth.

Each frame of sunflowers depicts an animated dialogue between past and present, individuality and collectivism — symbolizing an attempt at self-realization through introspection and contemplative processes. It is an immersive tale of self-discovery about education and personal history through universal themes that resonate deeply among minorities and immigrants navigating complicated cultural terrain.

We invite you to visit the artist’s garden.

Sunflower: Reverberations of Self was presented as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival 2024, with support from the Ontario Arts Council.

Documentation
06 items
Installation view 02
Installation view 03
Installation view 04
Installation view 05
Installation view 06
Installation view 07
About the artist

Hu Yang is a photographer born in Shanghai and now residing in Newmarket, Ontario. His career spans significant long-form projects including the Shanghai Trilogy, with Shanghai Living alone selling over 250,000 copies. Known for documentary photography that captures life in Shanghai and the diaspora, his work has been exhibited at the ICP Triennial of Photography and Video in New York and the V&A Museum in London.