Wubin Zhuang : Small Town Stories

Yeo Workshop is proud to showcase Zhuang Wubin’s “Small-Town Stories”. Zhuang utilises photography and other media in an ethnographical mode, to visualise the cultural narratives of obscured Chinese communities around Southeast Asia. The artist’s personal journey is represented through the exhibition of his photography, reconstructed field notes, as well as a box he describes as a ‘portable museum’.

Zhuang’s ‘portable museum’ is a collection of found photographs, artefacts and images created by Zhuang during his fieldtrips. Each piece is carefully selected by the artist, including the box, chosen for its rich connection to Sinophone history. Zhuang is inviting visitors to browse through the box, and partake in his experiences. Zhuang’s research builds on the idea that the absence of a recorded history on the rural/semi-urban Chinese communities would affect the legitimacy of their belonging. While sitting the people for the portraits, speaking to them yields fascinating stories about their lives and Chinese ancestry.

Zhuang’s research builds on the idea that the absence of a recorded history on the rural/semi-urban Chinese communities would affect the legitimacy of their belonging. While sitting the people for the portraits, speaking to them yields fascinating stories about their lives and Chinese ancestry. Zhuang uses a 1950’s Rolleiflex Automat K4A, a film camera that helps him slow down his work process, and create a more classical and timeless quality in his photographs. This process allows him to document the performative encounter between the photographer and the sitters, shaped collectively by their desires and expectations.