Ke Peng

ke_peng

Untitled (2015)

Statement:
“To the place where light never changes,
and people stroll through the dust,
where a thousand miles of river hidden in the fog.
To the first place I have been, but don’t know much about.”

To reconnect with the first place I have been in the world, where everything seems suspended, and nothing will ever change, I made photographs that depict, reflect and evoke the sensual reality of this place and my feelings for it. I make photographs also because I always have difficulties understanding things that are quite different from me, but I feel strongly that I have to. The urge, burden and limitation of being in a specific place, as well as active looking is very important to me. I am hoping to construct an imagery geographical place by claiming my own version of stereotypical cultural elements, such as plastic, mass-produced objects and political statues. Growing up in Shenzhen, a city just as young as me, whose population grew from 30,000 to 15,000,000 in 30 years, I have been surrounded by everlasting movements and changes. I look into the new and the old in the modern China, and think a lot about how these two distinct but seemingly connected cities and experiences influenced millions of others and myself.

(All photographs are from the series “Leaky Logic and a Fugitive Fish”, and taken by me. Leaky Logic and a Fugitive Fish is a collaborative project I created with Justine Chang, which includes photographs, video and writing. In the past three months, we realized it as our thesis exhibition in the Red Eye Gallery at Rhode Island School of Design. Having fish as a thread and a poetic symbol, which appeared in all three forms, we built a new and complex narrative merged together two different imaginary spaces both of our work portrayed.)

Bio:
Ke Peng (b. 1992, Changsha, raised in Shenzhen, China) lives and works between Shenzhen, China and Los Angeles, CA. She is interested in how the different connect and distinction within the similar. The urge, burden and limitation of being in a specific space, as well as active looking is very important to her, while constantly thinking about one’s own self is the least important. She spends an unbelievable amount of time observing people, space.. and cute animals. She is also very fond of milk, jackfruit and canele. She graduated with a BFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design.

Artist’s Website: kepeng.org