So Near;So Far

Xuchen Yan

Summary
Final work

My work is basically based on reflection, on social, political and private events. There is no way to leave the general premise that I am a Chinese citizen, a person who received a traditional nine-year compulsory education and was born in the northern part of China. My family values, my social values and my moral standards have been greatly influenced by this environment. This makes me naturally open up to contrasting patterns when I receive feedback on the values of the Western world and social events.Is this the right way of thinking? How do I determine what is right or wrong in each category? Or who ultimately has the right to decide what is right? This is the question I am looking forward to investigating.

My work is basically based on reflection, on social, political and private events. There is no wa...

CollegeCentral Saint Martins
CourseMA Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies
Graduation year2025

The world has experienced a globally turbulent 20th century. Since the 1990s, popular culture has inadvertently become the dominant force on the Asian cultural stage. Beneath the glittering façade of prosperity lies a far more profound process of invisible rewriting and historical revision. Amid the juxtaposition and collusion of seemingly opposing ideological discourses, the politics of popular culture effectively carries out new ideological practices. In a sense, this new process of legitimisation has encountered no genuine cultural resistance. The spiritual legacy of the socialist era has either been discarded or repurposed for opposite ends."