Wenxin Zhang: Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse

30 November 2017   •  
Written by Emma Bubola
Wenxin Zhang: Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse

Wenxin Zhang is a Chinese visual artist. Photography is one of the channels she uses to unload her urge to express herself. While now she is exploring other artistic genres, we go back in time and pause on a fragment from her days as a photographer. Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse is part of a trilogy, exhibited at Lianzhou International Photography Festival, in 2014. In this project Zhang uses her powerful cinematic style to portray an immersive experience she undertook: getting lost in the forest to rediscover primitive sensations. The need to wander stemmed from her realization that adult life leads us to rationalize our surroundings, to seize the spatio-temporal dimensions of the world and determine our position within it. “When kids were still kids, all necessities of life were offered and received in cupped hands, no need to create a stake in the world”, she writes. Through this series, Zhang rediscovers the silence of the woods, the humane breath of the sleeping beast that, in her childhood fantasies, embodied the world.

Frozen Waterfall From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
“Frozen Waterfall” From “Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse” © Wenxin Zhang
"The White Horse" From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
“The White Horse” From “Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse” © Wenxin Zhang
From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
ctown 008
"Calvin" From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
“Calvin” From “Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse” © Wenxin Zhang

"Frozen Pond" From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang

From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
ctown 007
"Hands in the root" From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
002
"In the Forrest" From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
“In the Forrest” From “Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse” © Wenxin Zhang
"Branch" From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
005
"Hair in the water" From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
“Hair in the water” From “Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse” © Wenxin Zhang
From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
From “Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse” © Wenxin Zhang

From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang

From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
From “Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse” © Wenxin Zhang
"Antoninus" From "Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse" © Wenxin Zhang
antoninus 007

Images  from “Beast by the Waterfall Guesthouse” © Wenxin Zhang

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