Exhibition

Mother River by Yan Wang Preston

31 Mar 2017 – 24 Jun 2017

Regular hours

Friday
10:00 – 17:00
Saturday
10:00 – 17:00
Sunday
10:00 – 17:00
Tuesday
10:00 – 17:00
Wednesday
10:00 – 17:00
Thursday
10:00 – 17:00

Cost of entry

Free

Save Event: Mother River by Yan Wang Preston1

I've seen this

People who have saved this event:

close

Impressions Gallery

Bradford, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • For further information on local bus routes and times please visit the Metro website (www.wymetro.com).
  • By rail and bus Bradford Interchange is five minutes walk away from Impressions Gallery, with rail, bus and taxi services all under one roof. Bradford Interchange is only a 20-minute direct journey from Leeds station with links to the rest of the country.
Directions via Google Maps Directions via Citymapper
Event map

Mother River is a photographic odyssey taking the viewer on a journey along the entire length of the Yangtze, often known as China’s Mother River.

About

This new exhibition, commissioned in partnership with Gallery of Photography Ireland, offers fresh perspectives on China, where traditional landscape clashes with present-day development.

The epic project follows a simple premise: to document the 6,211km route of the river from source to delta, using a strict Y Points System to photograph every 100 kilometres. Made over a period of four years, Yan Wang Preston travelled to the remote high Tibetan Plateau through the Three Gorges to the river’s end at Shanghai. She had to find and photograph sixty-three locations in incredibly diverse and often remote terrain. Since the river source is 5,400 metres above sea level, and half of its length flows through some of the most majestic mountains on the Earth, Mother River is on one level a modern-day adventure, where the photographer faced hazards from altitude sickness to mudslides. 

Preston used a large-format field camera, the kind used by nineteenth century explorers. Although cumbersome and complex to use on location, the camera produces huge negatives, offering images with astonishing detail and resolution. 

For Chinese-born Preston, Mother River is in part an epic pilgrimage through her native country: an exhaustive exploration of a powerful symbol that reconnects her with the ancestral homeland. Closely associated with Chinese traditional paintings and an icon of the national landscape, the Yangtze represents the folklore of traditional China. However, with over 30 hydroelectric dams on its course, the river is synonymous with China’s rapid industrialisation.  Preston hopes Mother River will raise questions about the relationship between nature and culture, tradition and regeneration.

Mother River is part of Views from China, a special six month programme of exhibitions and events at Impressions, taking a fresh look at Chinese culture and the long standing links between the UK and China.

A touring exhibition from Impressions Gallery and Gallery of Photography Ireland.

What to expect? Toggle

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Yan Wang Preston

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.