Béton CVC presents a solo exhibition of Chinese photographer Almond Chu «Parade / In the Future». The exhibition includes works made with the use of both modern computer image processing and unique platinotype technology.

Almond Chu’s art photographic project Parade presents a series of large-scale photographic works in which rows of identical people march through the streets of a city. All of the hundreds of figures are the photographer himself. In his works, Chu shoots many self-portraits sequentially in one location and then combines them into a single image.

The Chinese term 遊行 -yóuxíng (parade) has several meanings: to solemnly march under a common flag or to walk aimlessly… In a series of images, Chu reflects on this particular social activity, the commonality of people’s interests for effective cooperation and constructive dialogue. In his works, the author emphasizes the importance of preserving social values in modern society, such as unity, friendship and mutual respect.  The photographer has been working on the project «Parade» for more than 20 years. Some of the works, with the support of Béton CVC, were made in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In 在未來 – In The Future, Chu moves towards expanding the role of the conceptual in relation to the usual visual aspects. In this series, the works complement each other on both a visual and semantic level, and the juxtaposition of works that together form a whole that is greater than the sum of the individual parts plays an important role here. Through this «serial» approach, Chu’s project is able to emphasize the underlying theme of finding a new future in the midst of extraordinary events, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each individual work is made by Chu in a single unique copy. The artist used platinum printing technology as the main technology. On the one hand, it allowed the author to achieve a high level of detail when printing «in contact» from an enlarged negative. On the other hand, the absence of sharp contrasts inherent in platinum printing allowed the print to convey the environment of everyday life, where routine and habits determine the «gray» appearance of reality. In addition to photographic technology, Chu incorporates «pictorial» sparks into the surface of the work – simple geometric shapes, drops of gold and silver made with acrylic paints. These abstract forms are meant to signify extraordinary events that somehow happen on the path of every person’s life and that have a radical impact on his or her destiny. Like the enigmatic stele from Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, familiar to fans of science fiction cinema, these striking geometric shapes mark the beginning of a new era in which the human worldview undergoes a metamorphosis and opens up new uncharted horizons.

It is in this way, in the combination of photographic and pictorial technologies, in the interaction of the everyday and the extraordinary, in the opposition between the limitations of man and the infinitely gigantic universe, that a future world is born, to which Almond Chu decided to draw attention in his project.

Almond Chu (https://almondchu.com/) has participated in over 230 exhibition projects around the world and has had 24 solo exhibitions. His works are represented in the collections of internationally respected museum collections, including the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, the Uhoda Collection, the Béton CVC and others.