Kim Woo-cheng (right) and Lu Won-min at the exhibition site.
On January 15, 2022, the exhibition "Jin Yucheng & Lu Yuanmin, the Old Shadow of this River - From Flowers to Suzhou Creek" opened at Place M Gallery in Nanjing. This exhibition covers more than 150 prints created by writer Jin Yucheng in recent years and Lu Yuanmin's photographic works.
According to curator Chen Rui, although the two artists have different fields, their respective works are mutually referenced and fitted in terms of core and spirit. Both gentlemen are "old Shanghai" and have a common background of growth, and even many of their life trajectories overlap. "If we look at their artistic creations and artistic resumes, we will find a lot of similarities and commonalities." Chen Rui said that for example, "Blossoming Flowers" is a name used by both Lu Yuanmin and Jin Yucheng, one has left a special image memory of Shanghai with a lens, and the other has used words to present the city of Shanghai in the second half of the twentieth century.
Suzhou Creek is also the object of common concern of the two artists. Lu Yuanmin has taken a lot of images about Suzhou Creek, and "Suzhou Creek" has become his most famous series. "These works may not only move us with nostalgic meanings, nor just Lu Yuanmin's unique and delicate artistic perspective and observation, but more importantly, it can evoke a beautiful distant vision and nostalgia unique to that past era." Chen Rui said.
Exhibition site.
Suzhou Creek has also been flowing through Jin Yucheng's novel "Flowers", including the preface "A trace of Suzhou River moisture in the wind" to "Husheng knows Xiao Mao and goes to Suzhou Creek to play", to the middle of the "Suzhou River boat to Huzhou", and finally "Husheng and Ah Bao passed by the Suzhou River to hear Huang An's song - it looks like a Mandarin duck butterfly / the age that should not be".
Rivers seem to have a different kind of connection to Kim Woo-sung, and his first novel is called "The Lost River". It is reported that Lu Yuanmin's photographic collection "Suzhou Creek" is about to be republished, and the preface uses the Suzhou River character described by Jin Yucheng and named it "The Old Shadow of this River", and the main title of this exhibition is also used.
The exhibition is produced by Place M, a 34-year-old photography gallery founded in Shinjuku, Tokyo in 1987 by Moriyama Avenue and Masato Seto, and in 2021 Place M landed in China.
Writer Jin Yucheng's painting creation began in 2012, almost synchronous with the "Blossoms" novel, the earliest work is the four illustrations created for the novel - the memory of the old Shanghai map, the purpose is only to help readers solve the "time has passed caused by the literary unsatisfactory" context, but for more than ten years through special expression and enthusiasm for painting, it has created hundreds of works, held many solo exhibitions, not only by literary lovers, but also by the art world fully recognized.
It is reported that the exhibition will last until March 30, 2022.
Selected works:
"The tiles are warm, the Huangpu River boats are chirping"
"The piano has a heartbeat, not furniture, but four feet".
"I'd rather step into the movie and die, get drunk."