Visual Maze

　　Pi Li

　　There is a subtle paradox in photos by Miao Xiaochun: he keeps deconstructing photography itself, and contrary to most artists, this deconstruction is completed not through concept but through vision itself.

　　From the aspect of vision, the core of photography lies in the principle of focus perspective. In this sense, such a principle is an extension of perspective painting--the major means of expression in traditional Western paintings. The perspective provides the viewer with a position from which the theme of the painting can be taken in at one glance. Linking this position and the vanishing point behind the painting is the central axis of the painting’s space, along which all the objects of the scene are thus arranged intrinsically within a spatial order and depth. In a certain sense, the perspective is a kind of description of the overall scene and its full structure, giving emphasis to the irreplaceable central position of the artist as well as the viewer. As a continuation of the concept of Western painting, photography also presents reality in a way as people actually see from a certain point of sight, which characterizes in the phenomena that “things seem larger when nearer and smaller when further away”. And the so called larger or smaller is always centralized from the view point of the artist and the viewer, who form the subjective center. Again, like painting, photography also has a “best point of sight”, from which the views of the viewer and the artist overlap so as to get the overall view, or the panorama of the scene, while all details visible are submitted to the impressions obtained at this sight point, which, however, is restrained by the “limit of lens” in actual operation of photo-taking and a series of interference such as reflected light from the surface of the photo. Traditional photographer’s language therefore has imperceptibly created a violence standard: a good photographer must make the viewer stand at the former’s “subjective center”, and a good viewer must make his “best sight point” coincide with that of the photographer.

　　Nevertheless, we find the “subjective center” of the photos, or the “best point of sight” of the viewer” in Miao Xiaochun’s works seems to have been irretrievably weakened. One basic character of Miao’s works is an image created by himself: the statue of a traditional Chinese scholar dressed in loose but comfortable dresses, who has appeared in all of Miao’s works like a spirit in the last few years. So, besides the “subjective center” of the photographer as an artist, there is another “subjective center” created by a statue (we might refer to it as Miao Xiaochun II)--or to be more exact the statute’s simulated sight. Miao Xiaochun II establishes an absurd space, a critical point between presence and absence, around which all activities and scenes unfold, but its sight is thrown to some place outside these activities in the scene. In this way, as the subject of the photo, Miao Xiaochun II brings out a secondary deconstruction to the “subjective center” of Miao Xiaochun the photographer, shifting the central subject of the photo from Miao Xiaochun at the position where the photo is taken to Maio Xiaochun II appearing inside the photo, to a “best sight point” that cannot be reached through the objective space.

　　Miao Xioachun’s works of this period try to realize a double “witness” both in and outside the photo through this statue of his self portrait. From the terrace of concept, this method seems somewhat simple and plain, but it creates a strange conceptual space in the visual sense. Within this space the photographer and the photographed form an antagonistic relation, through which the photographer tries to lead the viewer’s eyes to the photo itself and bring

　　the viewer into the scene itself. While at the same time the photographed persists in leading the viewer’s thinking out of the scene, thus retreating to absence.

　　After studying abroad Miao Xiaochun came back to take up a teaching job in his alma mater China’s Central Institute of Fine Arts. He also brought back his plan to be fulfilled in China. Perhaps it is China’s rapid modernization and urbanization that have touched him so deeply that the theme of his works has undergone some subtle change. His early works seem to be concerned with the contrast between China and the West while now what he seems more concerned about the contrast between the past and the present. Compared with Germany where he had lived for four years, the present-day China is full of noisy and clamorous visual details. This new visual sense of his is strongly manifested in his works.

　　Compared with his earlier works, Miao’s later works are no longer permeated with that pure and auspicious and peaceful atmosphere but rather full of various contradictions of the plot and dizzying details. The viewer finds these new photos have adopted a new “scenic tactic”: on the one hand there are more and more details in his works, and on the other hand, the statue of Miao Xiaochun’s self portrait has detached itself from the central position of the

　　photos. It always appears at one corner, or in the shadow, or in the reflection of a mirror. Through these two means of readjustment Miao has pushed the deconstruction of his photos to the extreme.

　　On the surface, these photos seem to lack a fixed visual focus and too straightforward. If the “subjective center” of the photographer is challenged by Miao Xiaochun II in his early works, now the photographer Miao has simply given up the fixed focus of his “subjective center” through multiple photo-taking. This also means the thorough lost of the “best sight point”. In this case, the viewer’s eyes seem to be in a state of weightlessness. People tend to find something which offers the overall picture by watching all the details. However, the disappearance of both the “best sight point” and the “subjective center” make such efforts especially futile. What one sees is nothing but clamorous details, which never allow the viewer’s eyes to rest at any single spot for long. So the whole photo becomes a huge visual maze, which makes the viewer tired whenever he looks at it. Only when the viewer’s eyes accidentally find Miao Xiaochun II in some inconspicuous place, who is actually waiting there, will the excursion through the maze come to an end.

　　Miao Xiaochun II is placidly watching the everyday life, which is detached from him but goes on all the time. These photos are by no means documentary--they even lack a fixed visual focus. The huge photos and their numerous details force the viewer’s eyes to search rapidly through the dense forest of images. Perhaps the expressionless man wearing ancient dresses is waiting for our eyes somewhere. His existence has not changed the nature of such scenes of everyday life but provides the viewer with a new sight. What these works play up is just the critic point between presence and absence, which has been successfully transferred into a visual maze.

　　At the level of finality, what Miao Xiaochun and Miao Xiaochun II jointly create is not some objects for the viewer to see, but rather the way of observation, which is similar to the “scattered perspective” of traditional Chinese painting. Just as the perspective in the art of Western painting is a kind of description of the overall scene and the whole structure, the scattered perspective in Chinese paintings reflects the ideal for both touring and living cherished and pursued by Chinese scholars. The former is a process in seeking the objective manifestation of “truth” while the latter is an effort in searching of “beauty” through self liberation. We find Miao tries to seek “beauty” by adopting the means of seeking “truth” (in his latest works Miao even goes to the extreme as to readjust the scene of his photos by adopting the structure of traditional Chinese paintings), but what he has actually achieved is endless visual clamor and the lost of soul. In this way Miao Xiaochun has completed a two-way dispense: on the one hand he tactfully subverts the very nature of photography and its criteria of the value of “truth” seeking, and on the other hand, he is examining today’s reality by way of “truth” seeking of photography, accurately calculating the distance between reality and ideal in modern scenes.

【编辑：小红】