The diversity and richness of the Chinese cuisine have been a fascination for both Chinese and foreigners alike. In China, anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven seems edible. Over the last couple of decades the country’s obsession with food created an inspiring track of anonymous photographs and photo albums. From black and white pictures of birthday cakes in the 1960s to a great wall of ham in the 1990s. It is easily forgotten how difficult and labour-intensive it used to be to present one’s ideas in a photographic way. Prints were made in a smelly darkroom, sometimes hand-colored and finally cut and pasted into albums. The process itself invited you to be creative.
Anything that walks brings together a disparate and eclectic collection of vernacular photography of Chinese food. Most materials are distracted from the extensive collection of the Archive of Modern Conflict sourced by Thomas Sauvin and Ruben Lundgren over the last 8 years. It playfully explores and celebrates the role of food within Chinese contemporary history in a visual explosion of photographs.
The Archive of Modern Conflict is an organisation dedicated to the collection and preservation of vernacular photographs, objects, artefacts, curiosities, and ephemera. Founded in 1991, the archive began as a collection of photographs relating to war and conflict but has since expanded its remit to become the vast and thematically diverse repository it is today.
More information: Jimei x Arles International Photo FestivalNovember 23, 2018 - January 2, 2019Main Venues: Jimei Citizen square main exhibition hall / Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre , Xiamen, Chinawww.threeshadows.cn/jimei-arles
