Cranes Squawking on the Deserted Hill

The photographic work of contemporary artist Yao Lu appropriates the forms of early Chinese landscape painting. Upon close inspection, however, the image turns out to be very different from what we expect to see. In the fan-shaped image, two elegant white cranes are posed on a bank of garbage. Yao contrasts the aesthetic value of pure nature against the gritty reality of the urban environment. Situating Yao’s work within the ongoing history of Chinese landscape painting, we are prompted to seek new answers to old questions: what is the relationship between man and nature, and how do we commune with nature in today’s rapidly changing environment?