The Bliss of Conformity | Guo Yingguang | La Maison de Z

47,00  Price incl. 7% VAT

Photographs and text: Yingguang GUO

Art Derection: Zhen SHI

Design: 1 and 1/2 Studio

ISBN : 978-2-9564071-1-9

Publication by La Maison de Z in May 2018

Limited edition of 800 copies

Velvet Cover, 28,7 x 20,5 x 1,4 cm,

Photographs in black & white and colors

The book includes three „pockets“ from where you can pull out a booklet with screenshots of the artist’s performance video.

In stock

SKU: 9782956407119 Category: Tag:

Description

INTRODUCTION

The boyfriend’s parents can’t accept her age after all, and their relationship ended there. That’s how Chinese photographer Yingguang Guo (b. 1983) became single at the age of 33, a “left-over woman”, considered by the eyes of contemporary Chinese society. Burdened by all of the questions she could not find answers to, Guo went to the People’s Park in Shanghai to perform as her own “matchmaker”, holding a sign with her own accomplishments, while the parents come sniffing around to assess her suitability for their children.

In addition to being a place of relaxation, Shanghai People’s Park is also a well-known market for matchmaking that has been in existence for ten years. Hundreds of parents gather there every weekend regardless of weather, clutching succinct summaries of their children on single information sheets that contain their age, height, education, job, salary etc. all in an effort to find an “acceptable” partner for their child to marry.

By photographing daily scenes and details of personal adds at the matchmaking corner, Guo also uses photo-etching techniques to create a series of abstract images that reveal the turbulent truths of arranged marriages beneath the seemingly calm surface depicted by peaceful images of the park, such as traditional intergenerational relationships and views of marriage, as well as discrimination against the so-called “left-over women”.

 

Additional information

Weight 0,6 kg
Dimensions 28,7 × 20,5 × 1,4 cm