City Container

by Jiayuan Yu

The city is a historical space with a complex context, a concept of collection where time and space come together in one place, containing metaphorical and symbolic meanings. The city is therefore more like an abstract container. China is developing rapidly in terms of urbanization, and there are brand new buildings everywhere, full of rules. In order to emphasize the sense of order, I use black and white film cameras with telephoto lenses to photograph the city and magnify the details of the city. Black and white film enhances the gaze effect, and the city with the colors removed has a sense of deviation, stripping away the everyday environment. But in the process of photographing I found that if the city is seen as a huge container, what really attracts people is not the tall buildings, but the unique cultural temperament of that city.

Jiayuan’s work combines photography, installation art, digital art and video documentary. With two elders in her family being Chinese teachers, the creator has been influenced by literature since childhood, making her visual works have a strong literary narrative. The creator is concerned with the self-perception of identity in a fluid and changing society and the construction of human beings in a local context.

Her work can be found on her Instagram at @jarin_jiayuanyu, or at https://www.yujiayuan.net.

edited by Judith Toh