"In Between: Places or Non-Places" is a group exhibition curated by Paul Han, in which the twin brothers Anthony and Phillip Reed explore how the forces of globalisation have shaped our world. Their images are undoubtedly from different locations, but by erasing their ‘identities’, they merge into a universal ‘non-place’.
The forces of globalisation and colonialism have played a significant role in shaping our world for almost four centuries. As a result, people from diverse continents, races, and cultures have come to share a more uniform and generic culture. Our clothing, food, and architectural styles have become increasingly standardized, and even our body shapes are beginning to conform to a homogenous ideal. While political identities still hold significance, regionalism and tribalism are reinforcing these identities. Nevertheless, we continue to cling to our individual identities, even as we become part of a larger, more uniform community.
The Reed brothers, who are identical twins, have always been viewed as "two as one." They share a resemblance and have both studied and worked in photography. How would this affect their artworks once separated to different continents? In a sense, identical twins are victims of fetishisation. They are struggling more than‘singlets’in finding their own identities. This similarity somehow becomes the undercurrent in their art practice as well, when they noticed that‘places’are uncannily similar. The subjects in their images are undoubtedly from different locations, but by erasing their‘identities’, they merge into a universal‘non-place’.
The internet has brought the world together, but it has also created new barriers. The French anthropologist Marc Augé's "non-places" theory states that places are defined as relational, historical, and concerned with identity, whereas spaces that lack these qualities are considered non-places. Examples of non-places include airports, railway stations, hotels, gas stations, hospitals, and supermarkets. These spaces do not foster singular identities or relationships but rather promote homogeneity and solitude. In this context, supermodernity refers to a situation of excessive information and space in which we currently live.
In-Between is a project that was born out of Augé's theory and the accurate depiction of our world. Started in 2008, the project consists of continual exchanges of photographs between the twins while they lived apart in different continents. The images represent transient, generic urban spaces and the solitary individuals who inhabit them. Despite the competition between urban designs, each city's urban plan ultimately results in a non-place, a postmodern human settlement that attempts to include everything and ends up becoming nothing. The images in this project were taken from metropolitans worldwide, each unique in its time and aesthetic, yet they have become unrecognizable backdrops for the solitude of individuals and their internal monologues. Although some of the "iconic" landmarks in the background may be a reminder of a particular place, the "imagined" factor in how and why they were created camouflages them and puzzles us in multiple aspects. We are abundant in locations, but we cannot find places because we have erased history and relationships.
More information:In Between: Places or Non-Places？
Participating artists: Anthony Reed & Phillip Reed
Curator: Paul Han
Dates: 21 April 2023 - 14 May 2023
Venue: Art Why Gallery
Address: NO.217-1 Building4, M50, Putuo, Shanghai, China
