Research Assistant
CurrentChina In Its New Hat is a research group that is working closely with Chinese photographer Wang Qingsong on his upcoming photoshoot that will take place in Detroit, Michigan. The shoot is meant to capture the parallels between Detroit’s formally booming manufacturing industries and the current manufacturing and consumerist climate in China, and how those two environments can either strengthen or dismantle cultural identities. As is common with most of Wang Qingsong’s work, each photo will be complete with characters, costumes, and props and will tell a story, echoing a film still. There will be three different locations in which the shoot will take place, the first being a factory, then a theater or church, and finally a residential home. All sites will be abandoned and no longer in use. The shoot itself will take place in September of 2017 and will be followed by an exhibition of the photographs, along with Qingsong’s previous works, at the new Stamps Gallery in downtown Ann Arbor.
