Liu Gang Residency: Exploring the Dutchtown of Shanghai

Liu Gang made his debut with The Paper Dream series (2008), which mirrored real-estate advertisements stretched over scaffolding that typically marked a new form of urban living in China. These works bear witness to the rise of a new class of Chinese citizens defined by a rapid social mobility, provoking anxiety about personal tastes and the need to conform to the trappings of a particular social status.

For his research for Double Infinity, Liu Gang spent time in Shanghai at our residency, studying the city’s ‘Dutchtown,’ visiting it over a few weeks, documenting how Gaoqiao Town is modeled on contemporary Dutch architecture, and how Chinese elements are finding their way through these contrived lived environments. Dutchtown is in the Pudong New Area, a derelict harbor; with its delta and marshes, it shares many features with its source of inspiration: the Netherlands.

A graduate at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2008, Liu Gang currently lives and works in Beijing. In 2008, Liu Gang was awarded the first price of graduation work from the Central Academy of Fine Art, and in 2009 his work was included in the exhibition “Reversed Images,” at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago).