Larry Silver, Untitled, 1996
Bruce Silverstein Gallery presents Larry Silver : Picturing Yangzhou, an exclusive online exhibition curated by Milly Cai, celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year of forty-three photographs taken in 1996 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. In accordance with Lunar New Year celebrations of cultural traditions and honoring ancestors, Silver’s photographs capture a rare, in-between moment in China during the 1990s socioeconomic change. Images of small-town life, of elder rural farmers and craftsmen carrying materials to make 竹夫人 (bamboo wives), are juxtaposed by Chinese youth in a Western wedding ceremony. These images document Yangzhou’s lived history, one of tradition, cultural appreciation, and heritage, while also creating a narrative of progress imbued with a sense of nostalgia. Cai, who grew up in the small, rural town of Mingshan, Sichuan Province (名山区) during this period, found Silver’s photographs to especially resonate with her, capturing the essence of the world as she remembers from family albums.
