HARD NOT TO STRAY, ESP. IN A RESTROOM W/ A VIEW ZHENG YAOHUA
Zheng Yaohua, born in Shanghai, China in 1962, is a New York based artist. He is one of awardees of 2011 QCAF award funded by the NYDCLA Greater New York Arts Development Fund and an invitee to photo-eye’s Art Photo Index. Zheng’s work is always sparked by his contemplation of mundane things and average individuals. This is Zheng’s third photo book after his Sleepwalk (2010) and Behind (2011). Thanks to C.J. Shane for her generous and valuable help for the artist’s English writing for this book. The writing also gratefully received substantial help from Cao Mengqin and Du Yifei. Thanks to Li Shuang, who was the first reader as well as the reviser and proofreader of the writing. ONEs Press has dedicated itself to an image-related book publishing plan that is based on artists’ collaboration. Its publications could be found at onespress.blogspot.com If like to view and share the digital version of this book, download it from issuu.com, http://goo.gl/IfLto To decode/read the RQ codes above your device needs an appropriate app installed. It is easy to find one for free. © 2012 by Zheng Yaohua All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, Zheng Yaohua www.zeyez.net zheng.yaohua.zeyez@gmail.com Self-published in association with the ONEs Press Plan onespress@gmail.com Design by Zheng Yaohua Print by MagCloud.com
To Hannah Tang
雲 無 心 以 出 岫 The carefree clouds float among the mountain peaks - Tao Yuanming*
HARD NOT TO STRAY, ESP. IN A RESTROOM W/ A VIEW
HARD NOT TO STRAY, ESP. IN A RESTROOM W/ A VIEW Published in association with the ONEs’ plan
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
ZHENG YAOHUA
* Tao Yuanming (also known as Tao Qian, 365–-427) was a Chinese poet of the Six Dynasties poetic period (ca. 220-589 CE) and generally regarded as the greatest poet during the centuries between the Han and Tang dynasties. Tao is also the foremost of the “recluse” poets. Tao Yuanming. (2012, May 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:15, June 8, 2012, from http://goo.gl/Nu38a
INTRODUCTION Inferring from personal experiences, our minds always wander from what we are doing and where we are, especially when in an unexpected state of privacy such as becoming alone in a public restroom. We look where we might not otherwise look, or gaze at something but not see it, while our minds stray from the gurgles for an instant. What if it was even a restroom with a view? On the third floor of my office building, there is a restroom with a big window to the sky. Last June after waking up again to the actuality that I would not be able to photograph as a full-time artist, I started taking pictures in the restroom when it happened to be vacant during my coffee breaks. I believed that I would eventually capture something that the office workers on my floor gazed at. Each picture in the book corresponds to one of those gazes. I know that I can record what someone looks at, but I cannot show how his mind travels, or how far, from the object he looks at. If the photographs taken through the same window with the same composition bring some boring images, then they are boring. Tao Yuanming*’s words, “The carefree clouds float between the mountain peaks,” probably means the boredom logical. By the way, a Chinese reader might effortlessly think that this line is more a portrait than a landscape, a portrait of the author or even the reader himself. There might be, however, another perspective on these images, which I learned from the first rough sequencing of the photos. The book can be seen as an album of a single trip. The trip lasts almost 90-page long, seemingly through the day and night with erratic clouds haunting it almost the entire time, yet could occur actually during a quick, random gaze. Thus, instead of Chinese classical poems, something else is coming to my mind. Those are La Zattera Della Medusa by Theodore Gericault, The City by Frans Masereel and the paintings with windows by Edward Hopper. Zheng Yaohua June 16, 2012
HARD NOT TO
H N
HARD NOT TO
HARD NOT T STRAY IN A R ROOM A VIEW
HARD NOT TO STRAY, ESP. IN A RESTROOM W/ A VIEW
HARD NOT TO STRAY,
RO AV
OOM W/ VIEW
D TO Y, ESP. RESTM W/ EW