Ni Haifeng at Lumen Travo - Amsterdam - Brief Article

Art in America, March, 2002 by Janet Koplos

Ni Haifeng, a Chinese artist living in Amsterdam, treats such subjects as dislocation and identity, as is announced by the titles of the two series of photographs included in this show, "No-Man's-Land" and "Self-Portrait as a Part of Porcelain Export History." The former series is equally concerned with perception and reality. Ni shot these large, unframed photographs (some black and white, some color) at Madurodam, a miniaturized Holland in a park in The Hague that includes models of Schipol Airport, the port facilities in Rotterdam and various canal, road and railroad facilities. The details of the park's models are quite convincing, and Ni makes good use of that. The shots are framed so that only rarely and barely are visitors to the park visible. Often only the off scale of grass or shrubs in relation to the architecture suggests that what's shown is not reality. The shot of the Schipol model, however, is unbelievable because no ground personnel can be seen, while in a photo of a railway platform, it's the stiffness and sometimes the tilt of the waiting passengers that declares their model-railroad falsity.

With the series title "No-Man's-Land," Ni plants other implications. As a model, each site is an ideal place and an unattainable one. But as photographed, these tiny worlds, in which everything is immediate and there is no horizon, suggest a form of incarceration. (In his exhibition statement, Ni quotes Paul Virilio on this effect.) That small compass might be symbolic of Holland itself, with its remarkable character of nation-as-village, where everybody knows everybody else's business.

Ni showed three modest-size photos from the seven of his "Porcelain Export History" series. (The series was on view over the winter in larger format in "Unpacking Europe" at Rotterdam's Museum Boijmansvan Beuningen.) For these photos, the artist's body was painted with motifs from blue-and-white porcelain, the kind that was exported long ago from China to Europe and started a Western craze. One photo shows Ni's legs embellished with blue blooms and tendrils. The other two show his torso--front and back--painted with a sailing ship. On his back the ship is encircled, as if on a plate. The similar image on his chest lacks a plate rim and would suggest a tattoo, except that part of the boat is missing; perhaps it had worn off the original china over the centuries, or this flaw might reflect damage to the color illustration from which the ship was copied, complete with a caption that continues down the artist's torso. Another work in the series, not shown, displays his embellished hands, which look like the henna-decorated hands of Middle Eastern women, except for the blue color. In an artist's statement, Ni equates himself with porcelain as the "exotic oriental," fetishized due to cultural difference. He takes charge of his own labeling and makes himself anonymous by showing only fragments.