Wildphotos: Gulu

Gulu's Polaroid Photography
歪风 Wildphotos
2017 - 2021

This catalogue is published on the occasion of Gulu's exhibition organized by Migrant Bird Space Berlin, curated by Lu Mei.
Edition of 600

"WILD PHOTOS" is a collection of almost 300 polaroid pictures that I took between 2017 and 2021. On a photography level, through the peculiarity of polaroids, I carried out a second creation, including painting, collage, film transfer and flame burning. From the content to its overall structure, these works are rebellion and subversion against the tradition.
But what I want to clarify is that these pictures oppose the restraints of reality while cheering for the expression of freedom, embodying the Chinese philosophy of the Yin & the Yang, or the philosophy of mutual enhancement and inhibition between the five elements. I sum that up with "the coexisting of water and fire".
As everyone knows, the imaging of Polaroid photos is inseparable from the liquid chemicals in the photographic paper, and the technology of secondary processing of "film transfer". Moreover, the photographic paper must be peeled off, and the picture immersed in the water; this way the water becomes the medium that will complete the transfer, leading its own characteristics to appear on the picture. That is how eventually water appears on the work. Thus, I wanted to take one more step, as I thought of the opposite of water, fire. Water represents Yin, fire Yang. It seems like paper-based Polaroids have never come in relation to fire, so during the development of an image, I tried to involve fire. Thereby, making water and fire, these antagonists create a new collision right on the same picture, consequently mixing into a new work of art. After testing relentlessly for a year, I put part of the resulting images in the second half of a book.
It seems just like offering sacrifices in primitive religions, as the people in the Polaroids went through a baptism of water and fire, almost making me see God.
Following a timeline, the book "WILD PHOTOS" can be divided into three macro sections: the first part includes works from 2017 to 2020; the central part focuses on the collage of film transfer; the last part consists of the new trials made in 2021.
Gulu 02.03.22



Migrant Bird Space is a Berlin & Beijing-based art foundation and gallery, providing a showcase for artists as well as art agency services in China & Europe. Working out of the gallery space at Koppenplatz in the heart of Berlin, the foundation offers a professional platform for cross-cultural communication between China and Europe with a focus on contemporary Chinese art. Promoting both established and emerging artists, Migrant Birds provides gallery spaces for exhibitions in Beijing and Berlin, an artist-in-residence program, regular talks and lectures, as well as support in liaising with Museums, universities, private institutions and more.