Provenance

In his Fan Motifs series, Michael Cherney reimagines classical Chinese fan painting through the lens of analog photography, merging fleeting natural encounters with historical formats of viewing. Each fan-shaped image is derived from a scan of a 35mm film negative and mounted on traditional xuan paper. Though photographic in origin, these works abandon the conventional rectangle of the camera’s viewfinder, embracing instead the shapes of the fan—a form long associated with literati expression, personal reflection, and intimate scale.

Appearing under the exhibition’s theme, the series occupies the temporal threshold of the present moment. In this liminal space, light reacts to film in a singular instant, yet the fan format slows the gaze. Locations where the photos were captured, such as the Loess Plateau, Wulingyuan, and Beijing’s Temple of Heaven become more than sites—they are fragments of time caught between concealment and revelation. The fan’s curve guides the eye not to a vanishing point, but in a circular rhythm of contemplation. Cherney’s experiment is not just formal; it is philosophical: photography becomes a structure of looking, and the present is caught—not as a decisive moment, but as a pause within tradition.

在「扇面形式」系列中，秋麦借助传统胶片摄影重新诠释中国古典扇面绘画的审美形式。他使用35毫米黑白胶片记录下自然中的瞬间景象，冲洗后再将底片扫描，最终印制于手工宣纸之上。这一制作过程融合了古典与当代、东方与西方：既保留了摄影所特有的颗粒质感与光影反应，也延续了中国传统绘画中宣纸的柔韧肌理与手工装裱工艺。图像脱离了相机标准的长方形构图，转而采纳圆形与折扇等古典扇面造型——这一自古便承载文人书画、静思沉吟与私密观赏的形式。

该系列作品归于展览“中流映照”章节，呈现的是“当下”这一模糊而转瞬即逝的时间切面。在这里，光线与胶片的感光反应定格的是瞬时，而扇形构图则引导观者放慢脚步、细细凝视。拍摄地如黄土高原、武陵源和北京天坛，不再只是自然地貌的呈现，而被转化为介于显露与遮蔽之间的时间片段。扇面的曲线不再导向远近透视的消失点，而是在圆润之中构建出冥想般的观看节奏。秋麦以摄影为结构，以扇面为界，将“当下”从快速流逝中抽离出来，使之成为一个停驻于传统文化语境中的凝视与回响。