Expo Between The Lines

Wrinkles of the City

emmalouisecomerford — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:51:16 +0000

At the moment a french photographer and artist, who recently won a TED prize for his work, is working on a project in the city of Shanghai called ‘The Wrinkles of the City’. JR has been referred to as the ‘artist who gives slums a human face’ by the New York Times! The project he is currently working on in Shanghai deals with memory, aging and a city under transformation.

He starts with creating portraits of elderly people who represent the memory of a city past, he then interviews each person and records the changes they’ve witnessed in the city. Then these portraits, printed in monumental sizes, are pasted in the very same city in various places that inspire JR and represent the city’s heritage.

As someone who has experienced the city and researched its growth I think this is an amazing way of encouraging people to stop and think about the cities past. Its a very sensitive way of making a comment, or even protest, on the vast changes Shanghai has seen in such a short amount of time.

You can find more of his work and similar projects here.

Expo Between the Lines.

emmalouisecomerford — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:42:18 +0000

This is as far as I got to with the exhibition piece, not completely happy with it but in the circumstances I know I did well and have learnt a lot. The exhibition launches in a few days, we’ll be gone by then so will only see it all set up in photos. We have a couple days to ourselves now before we go home, I want to see as much of the city as I can. The project will continue into stage two when we arrive home.

Expo Photos

emmalouisecomerford — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:59:16 +0000

Project Work

emmalouisecomerford — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:49:41 +0000

Some more interesting characters from the expo.

China Doll

emmalouisecomerford — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:29:57 +0000

These are probably my favorite photos taken on the expo site, they were taken below the chinese pavilion. This family was taking a break, sitting around eating together. The young girl in the photo is wearing a traditional chinese dress for the day.

Project work

emmalouisecomerford — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:55:32 +0000

I’ve started developing the developing the characters for my final image from the photographs I’ve taken during the day. I usually get pictures of people I think look interesting an exaggerate different aspects of them. I’ve seen some really great faces walking around during the day, its hard to chose which ones I’m going to develop.

Expo Day three

emmalouisecomerford — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:33:11 +0000

Today I did much the same as yesterday, walk the whole site taking photos of anything that caught my eye. The area around the Chinese pavilion is particularly interesting as you see a lot of different chinese ethnic groups from all over China, a few of which want photographs taken with you as they don’t see many western travelers where they are from. You get gawked at a lot as you walk around the expo site, but then I was doing a lot of gawking myself.

Expo day two

emmalouisecomerford — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 22:17:25 +0000

Wandered around the Expo site all day today and tried to take in as much as I could. As the title of my research blog hints (expo between the lines) I have chosen to focus on what’s going on inbetween the pavilions. Its really interesting the way that the visitors use and interact with the different areas around the site. You see a lot of people happily sitting around, taking off their shoes taking a break, eating with their families and even using the benches to take a nap. The vast majority of the visitors are chinese coming from all over the country to visit the expo, for many of them its the most they will see of the rest of the world. Anyone I’ve encountered is happy enough to have their photo taken with many proud parents inviting photographs of their children. Below are some of the shots taken today.

Expo Day one

emmalouisecomerford — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 23:32:44 +0000

Today was day one on the expo site. We got there using the metro system which is incredibly well designed, its a nice way of cooling down too! We headed straight over to the irish pavilion, the site itself is huge, on the way there the first thing that stood out to me was the sea of umbrellas, you see a lot of umbrellas in Dublin too but for completely different reasons.

Our work from a previous collaborative project with SIVA university was on exhibit in the Irish Pavilion. The official launch of the project was this evening with a reception and speeches from the organizers. It was great to see our work displayed and get some feedback from the people there, made for a nice combination of pressure and encouragement for the next project. Had dinner and drinks in the Porterhouse, a restaurant and brewing company from Ireland, very strange to be there in the middle of Shanghai but I suppose thats expo for you!

Welcome to my world….of no air con.

emmalouisecomerford — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:40:55 +0000

Arrived in Shanghai this afternoon, still exhausted after the flight and recovering from the initial shock of our accommodation, I’ll have even more respect for the Shanghai students if I survive the next couple weeks in their accommodation! Not what I’m used to but I suppose its all part of the experience. We’re staying at M50, its the main art district in the city, full of studios and exhibition spaces, its a really cool place, would be even better with aircon in the bedrooms!

I’ll be using the blog over the trip to document my expo experience and project work. Expect blood, sweat and tears I’d imagine.