The Saboteur | Wang Ningde

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Wang Ningde, “No Name No.1 (from the No Name series),” 2015

archival inkjet print, 199 x 300 cm. (courtesy of the Artist)

Wang Ningde describes himself as The Saboteur. Though his creations originate in photography, he consistently strives to break the inherent definitions and boundaries of the medium. Ningde’s series titled No Name intricately weaves together photographs he took of graffiti, isolating the painted strokes and layering them with images of conflict he sourced from the internet. Through this collage, he mimics a raw and expressive painting texture, blurring the lines between delicacy and coarseness, clarity and obscurity, narrative and abstraction, destruction and reconstruction, and illusion and reality.

In the context of art history, the strokes in painting have often been used to carry the spirit of revolution and rebellion, as in, for example, the impressionist paintings of the nineteenth century. The invention of photography, on the other hand, was predominantly organized around challenging the conventions of realist painting. As such, Ningde’s work represents an experimental exploration of the fundamental essence of both painting and photography. It serves to deconstruct the two mediums, pushing the viewer to reconsider their own assumptions and expectations of painting and photography. The novelty and anxiety stemming from the uncertainty of these works aptly resonates with the contemporary art context today.

The Saboteur is the artist’s inaugural solo exhibition in Canada. This exhibition is curated by Dr. Zheng Ziyu, an internationally acclaimed curator of photography and an associated researcher at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.