BY: ELI ROSS
All too easily your eyes can mislead your mind. Nostalgic imagery is deceiving. As your eyes scan across the foggy mountain peaks and calm rivers that wind through green pastures you probably mistook these photographs for a 10th century traditional Chinese landscape painting. A sense of Zen filled your mind, you thought they were beautiful- however they are anything but.
A closer look reveals that the subjects of Yao Lu’s photographs are actually of landfills, with trash ranging as far as the eye can see. You fell victim to the design of the Chinese government, which requires a green netting to cover garbage heaps to protect the man-made mountains from strong gusts of wind, while adding aesthetic appeal.
In his project entitled New Landscapes, Lu examines the not-so-hidden impact of China’s widespread urbanization. Development has become ubiquitous in the country that has catapulted itself into an annual double-digit economic growth over the past decade. The byproduct of China’s expanding middle class is a growing garbage problem that, according to the World Bank will be producing 562 million tons of solid waste annually.
The international community is not in fact blameless, an estimated 250,000 tons of used electrical products from Europe floods Asia’s borders each year, and more than a third of waste paper and plastic collected from British Businesses is sent to China. Mountains have long been seen as sacred places in China, which is fitting, as rampant consumerism is now the pinnacle of modern society.
The manipulated photos reveal the hidden truth that all of us play a role in these startlingly real landscapes. They confront us with their deceiving “beauty” of the rippling effects caused by our unsatisfiable hunger for the material.
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
YAO LU/COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY
Image Sourcing: fastcodesign.com, slate.com