The Map of the Mapping

2019

The Map of the Mapping is a long-term project of Zhang Wenxin on how to re-understand photography. The work began with the artist’s structural reconstruction using a low-pixel digital photo of a deceased family member. Once the audience enter the exhibition space, it is like they come to the front of a magic mirror in which the shapes and shadows reflect on each other. Then wandering through the maze mapped out by the artist, the audience will see a matrix composed of 13 photos, resembling some kind of shrine or altar image, connecting the artist’s creation trajectories in a radial order, and any threads reaching out from the center can grow into a deep path. Whether it is a “shadow maze”, a photo matrix, or a tower-shaped installation, the images are all linked by mapping logic, and the mandala schema also becomes a clue to connect their revelations.

As its name implies, The Map of the Mapping is not a solidified landscape, but an active “mapping” reactor. In it, myriads of symbols related to photography are aroused, activated and recognized. Through the mapping between different media, different situations and different color spaces, between inheritance and disappearance, truth accidentally reveals itself after the illusion is continuously stripped off.

Since the iconoclasm, human beings have rarely mentioned the mysterious enchantment of images that originated in the religious art period. Especially in today’s world now shrouded by scientism, this enchantment has almost become a shielded area that people avoid talking about. But the magic of photography seems to never fade away. When technical images (like photography) are reexamined by us, perhaps it is the artists who are reminding us how to coexist with science and mystery at the same time. What is mapped by the mapping place is how to retain a touch of innocence, enthusiasm and sincerity of the enchanted era in a world of disenchantment of the contemporary society, so as not to make the self gradually lose perception under the cold reality.

Written by Wang Huan

《映射之地》

2019

《映射之地》是张文心关于如何重新认识摄影的一个长期项目。该作品发端于艺术家使用已故亲人的一张低像素数码照片所展开的结构重置。进入展览空间，如临宝镜，形影相睹。继而在艺术家所织构的迷宫中游弋，观众将看到一个由十三张照片所组成的、仿若某种神龛或祭坛形象的矩阵，将创作路径以放射式的秩序相连，从中心引出的任何一条线索又皆可生长为幽深的路径。无论“影子迷宫”，还是照片矩阵，抑或塔式结构的装置，均以映射的逻辑被勾连起来，而曼荼罗的图式亦成为串联其显露身形的线索。

一如其名，《映射之地》不是一个已固化的景观，而是一个活跃着的“映射”反应堆，身在其中，有关摄影的众多象征物被唤起、被激活、被辨认，并通过一次次不同媒介、不同情境、不同色彩空间之间的映射，在继承与散佚之间，真实得以从不断剥离的幻象之下，偶然地显露自身。

自打破圣像运动以来，人类对图像中发端于宗教艺术时期的神秘加持就鲜有提及了，尤其在如今科学主义气氛所笼罩的大环境下，这几乎成为了避而不谈的遮蔽区域。可摄影的魔力似乎从未消退过，当我们重新审视（如摄影这般）技术图像时，或许艺术家在时刻提醒着人们如何同时与科学和神秘共处。映射之地，不如说其映射的是如何在当代社会的除魔世界观里还能保留一抹如附魔世界观一般的天真、热情与真诚，以不至使自我在冰冷的现实下逐渐失去感知。

写作：王欢