Time: from June 21 to August 12, 2019, open from 11:00 to 21:00 every day
Address: Art Space, 5/F, Meiluo City, 1111 Zhaojiabang Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai
The exhibition is free of charge, and you can print photos on site to leave your own memories~Consult the on-site staff for details
Use simple art forms to create a fantasy of love, so that people in love can get the same sense of sweetness and happiness as childhood sweethearts. This is how the artist Ma Liang introduced his new works.
Artist Ma Liang fulfilled this rather classical dream in the hearts of many people with "Childhood sweethearts Photo Gallery". The couple provided photos of their childhood, while Ma Liang merged the two photos into a seamless group photo by using the computer PS, so that the lovers who had not met in childhood could have a group photo of childhood sweethearts. Ma Liang worked on this art project for 10 months and created "childhood sweethearts photos" for more than 150 couples.
On June 21, the public art exhibition "Childhood sweethearts Photo Gallery" appeared in the "Art Space" of Meiluocheng, Xuhui, Shanghai. More than 60 photos displayed recorded the "childhood sweethearts" that ordinary people yearn for. The exhibition is one of the most interactive immersive exhibitions in Shanghai recently, because it is related to everyone's childhood memories.
Ma Liang is introducing the works of this exhibition. (Tuyuan Chengke App)
"For them," Childhood sweetheart Photography House "is an illusion of love, which must be beautiful. For me, they are very happy every time I finish this work, so I am also very happy, so I have the motivation to do the next one." - Ma Liang
In May 2011, Ma Liang took photos for more than 1600 people in more than 20 provinces across the country and created the art plan of Mobile Photo Gallery after 10 months.
In April 2018, Ma Liang, who became a father, attracted wide attention because of a composite photo of himself and his wife, and began to create the project "Childhood sweetheart Photo Gallery" in his studio. During the creation process, Ma Liang added GIF animation to each combined photo. After more than half a year of creation, Ma Liang created more than 100 groups of photo installation works and animations.
This photo is the origin of the creation of Childhood sweethearts Photo Gallery. It was created by Ma Liang himself for his wife. Although they didn't know each other when they were young, the feeling revealed from the photos after composition was that they were "childhood sweethearts".
It seems that everything is reincarnation, and the works are like their own children for each artist. Ma Liang's attitude towards the creation of his own works is more devoted, meticulous, and focused on every detail. What's more valuable is that his creation comes from real feelings, full of inexplicable warmth, and it can always touch you!
Art may be an endless game for Ma Liang. If we can say that the art plan of "Mobile Photo Studio" was Ma Liang's youth diary, "Dad's Time Machine" was his gift to his father, and "Childhood Beauty Photo Studio" was the artist Ma Liang's return to romanticism again, we also wish the first show of the Childhood Beauty Photo Studio a complete success!
——Curator Su Bing
Gu Yanyan and Jiang Gong, two little girls printed on the poster of the exhibition, also came to the exhibition this time. Gu Yanyan, who was only 4 years old at that time, had natural curly hair and bright black eyes, while Jiang Gong on the edge showed a little boy's typical reluctant expression when taking photos.
It is reported that Gu Yanyan saw the composite photos of Ma Liangfa and his wife in her circle of friends and thought that "they look particularly right". She immediately decided that "we should do the same". "Seeing the photos, I think we are childhood sweethearts." Gu Yanyan, a post-80s generation, and her husband Jiang Gong, a post-70s generation, are a couple on the poster of the "Childhood Beauty Photography House". They were several years older and didn't know each other when they were young, but they had a childhood group photo of similar age because of "Childhood sweethearts Photography House".
Gu Yanyan selected a photo of her "beauty peak" period, in which she was four or five years old with natural curly hair and dark eyes. At that time, her family lived near the City God Temple in Shanghai. As long as she played in the alley at the entrance, all the tourists who came to the City God Temple praised her for being cute and would take pictures of her, "very proud.
Ma Liang captured the different features of their photos. In the composite photo, the two people were not close together, but slightly apart. The little boy's expression of being unwilling to take photos was annotated. He also created a moving picture for this picture: the little boy wanted to run out of the photographer's lens, but the little girl caught him.
Ma Liang hoped that this matter could be "more fun", so he was not satisfied with simple composition, and he added gif animation, which poured his creative imagination into each group photo. It takes five or six hours to find materials, pick out details and compose a photo. The photos submitted to Ma Liang by netizens are various, with different backgrounds. It is needless to say that the size and color of the photos, and the demeanor and movements of the two protagonists are various. Sometimes he needs to put a half length photo and a full length photo together, and sometimes he needs to put black and white photos and color photos together. In order to make the photos seamless and interesting, he has worked hard.
Over the past year, Ma Liang has unknowingly completed more than 150 photos, "taking" childhood group photos for 150 couples.
"For netizens, the childhood sweetheart photo studio is an illusion of love. Every time they finish one, they are very happy, and I have the motivation to do the next one." Some professional photographers think that composite photos are not complicated, and photographers can do them. As an artist's work, it seems too simple. Ma Liang believes that art can be simple and beautiful, "as long as it is related to life and reality".
In fact, it is beyond many people's expectation that the "childhood sweetheart photo studio" can reach such a busy stage. Ma Liang believes that this reflects people's attitude towards emotion. "The reason why I did this work is because I think it is a romantic thing. The beautiful love relationship, family life, children, etc. are all warm topics. I hope my photography technology in this project is like a kind of comfort or magic, which can create innocent romance. Lovers are together all their lives, never separated."
The action and plot in the photos may be absurd and clumsy, but the intention behind them is sincere. I like doing complicated and laborious things, but I don't like taking shortcuts. I am willing to pay time and enthusiasm to do stupid things. The heartless world is just romantic because of enthusiastic fools—— maleonn
There are three photos on display in a group, two original single photos and one group photo; More than 100 photo frames of different materials in the exhibition were assembled into art installations and arranged in the exhibition hall.
In order to make the photo frames match the age of the photos, Ma Liang took out his own collection while buying more than 500 second-hand family photo frames on the Internet, and selected more than 100 suitable photo frames to fill in the printed photos. Some family photo frames are of European retro style and some are of modern art style. They are not new, but have a strong sense of nostalgia.
In the process of creating the photo installation, Ma Liang also used children's products from the 1980s and 1990s, which was obtained from the real life of the protagonist in the photo, that is, the netizen himself. It was hard won, and it also enhanced the authenticity, warmth and life flavor of the work.
(Image source of the exhibition site: Chengke App, photography: Nicole, Su Jie)
(Tuyuan Shangguan News)
(Tuyuan Shangguan News)
It is worth mentioning that the exhibition site can also use AR equipment to watch the works, appreciate the moving pictures hidden in the works through the graphic works, enter the space of Ma Liangqi's imagination, and let the audience's eyes beat the scene of the sky and the brain.
Open AR software to scan
Old photos become one by one
The world of children's interest full of beautiful fantasy
A funny group photo of Ma Liang and his wife. Source: Ma Liang
This "face changing" area is reserved for everyone
Those childhood sweethearts who failed to catch up with Ma Liang's hand "matchmaking"
You can take a group photo here
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