History of Chemistry I

This single-projection video by Lu Chunsheng will be on exhibit at the Smithsonian, a renowned photographer and video artist now living in Shanghai.

The 2011 Perspectives series will focus on single-projection videos, beginning with History of Chemistry I by Lu Chunsheng (b. 1968, Changchun, China), a renowned photographer and video artist now living in Shanghai. A mesmerizing experience of a vaguely familiar but remote world, History of Chemistry I follows a group of men as they wander from somewhere beyond the edge of the sea through a vast landscape to an abandoned steel factory. Using long shots and remote settings, Lu Chunsheng enigmatically refers to a distant history while conveying the sense of dislocation wrought by modernization.

The next Perspectives installment, featuring a work by Hale Tenger (b. 1960, Izmir, Turkey), will be on view July 30–November 6, 2011.