Wang Guofeng 王國鋒 | The Spiral of Spectacle: the Image Bank of Wang Guofeng

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Wang Guofeng, "North Korea 2014-English class at Pyongyang International Football School," 2014

inkjet print, 270 x 180 cm. Courtesy of Artist.

A significant study in communication, the “spiral of silence,” coined by German communication scholar Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in 1974, is a brilliant analysis of the “silent masses” phenomenon under Nazi Germany. The theory posits that minority-opinion holders refrain from expressing their views from fear of isolation or reprisal. In Wang Guofeng’s North Korea series, objects are undifferentiated, and individuality is obliterated. The images are staged, with all of his subjects performing for the camera (with the exception of “the special one”). The Spiral of Spectacle is a manifestation of the silent, ant-like masses, which become an undifferentiated sign of presence. Wang states, “I have always avoided being confined by the notion of photography within my practice but emphasize the ‘image as a medium.’” Many of Wang’s serial works are computer generated and are the result of numerous images being combined. The camera is used only to capture content for his image bank, and subsequent computer editing is needed to finalize the body of work. Although Wang’s images appear to be documentary, what lies behind them is a manipulation of the spectacle, which implicitly points to the nature of the subject in view.