Camera Format: Photographed with an 8x10 large-format camera
Medium: Hand-made gelatin silver print
Edition: 1/3AP
Signature: Signed by the artist
Drawing upon the compositional tradition of classical Chinese court flower-and-bird painting, this work arranges Taihu rock and blossoming branches into a restrained and poetic Eastern pictorial space, yet replaces the lively songbird at the center with the skeletal remains of a bird. Within a classical visual structure, the image opens a deeper meditation on life, death, and the nature of existence. Titled Lie, the work questions the worldly attachment to bodily birth and extinction, echoing the Eastern philosophical idea that while the physical form is finite, the spirit endures. Blossoms suggest the gathering of vital force, bones its dispersal; life and death are thereby rendered equal, with form extinguished yet spirit remaining. Through a precise and austere visual order, the work transforms the traditional flower-and-bird idiom into a contemporary allegory of impermanence and immortality.
Ye Ming was born in Jinan in 1957 and graduated from Shenzhen University with a degree in mass film and media studies. He is a conceptual photographer and currently serves as a visiting professor at the School of Art and Media, Qingdao Hengxing University of Science and Technology. Large-format photography plays a central role in his practice, which emphasizes the integration of conceptual inquiry and visual structure. His exhibitions include Ye Ming Photography Exhibition at Jinan Art Museum (2015), a solo presentation at Shanghai Quan Photography Gallery (2016), Another Vision: Contemporary Art Project Exhibition in Qingdao (2016), Extreme Difference Art: International Group Exhibition in Qingdao and Beijing (2017), Aggregation: Chinese Large-Format Photography Exhibition at Ying Gallery, Beijing (2021), Qingdao International Art Annual Exhibition at Qingdao Art Museum (2021), and solo exhibitions in 2022 at the Rostock Academy of Arts and the Rostock City Gallery in Germany.