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A journal for storytelling, arguments, and discovery through tangential conversations.
Lost in Parallel Worlds: in conversation with Guanyu Xu
Tuesday, July 12, 2022 | Zinnia Naqvi
Guanyu Xu is an artist working with photography and cultural iconography to create compositions that deliberately disorient the viewer. His project 'Temporarily Censored Home' has reached international acclaim, currently showing at the International Center of Photography in New York. In this work, he visits his family home in China and creates elaborate photo installations by mining images from his personal photographic archive, printing them out, and physically placing them within domestic settings. Many of these photos are from his life in Chicago and draw on aspects of his queerness - a part of his life that he does not share with his family - in order to reclaim this space.
A Slippery Fish: the work of Juan Ortiz-Apuy
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 | Zinnia Naqvi
The objects in Juan Ortiz-Apuy’s work are carefully found, selected, auditioned, polished, and eventually put on immaculate display. Many do not make the cut, but those with particular stage presence and tactile appeal gain the honour of being brought into the limelight. His most recent exhibition, Tropicana was set up and then closed for four long months. The objects were left to dream. Did they eagerly await the day that the doors would open, and the lights would be cast upon them again? Or did they enjoy the peace and quiet of the gallery space, relishing their undisturbed moments on the pedestal?