Guanyu Xu
The term “emerging photographer” is something that I’ve always felt is a little bit misleading. Indeed, it sounds as though the artist is newer or has spent less time in the arts than many others who are working similarly. Honestly, one can be referred to in this way for many years without breaking out of the mold, so I often think of these “categories” the same as trying to put a label on a band or musical artist. The title just doesn’t always fit.
With the case of someone like Guanyu Xu, there is another aspect that complicates the labels, so he’s merely another example of being misapplied. While Guanyu may be on the younger side, it is his list of accomplishments at this stage that I find impressive. He has amassed an impressive CV of awards, artist residencies, and exhibitions in a relatively short amount of time. His work has also been included in some significant public collections, and it seems evident that this is just the start. In addition to this, he is a Lecturer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His award from CENTER, as the recipient of the 2021 Project Development Grant, is what led me to want to investigate his work and process a bit more. For his project, Resident Aliens, this grant will help him to advance a work-in-progress much further and much faster than before. I’m interested in how this came about and how it will be applied, among other things. It doesn’t seem like the “emerging” tag is going to stick around long.
In a way, this interview is slightly preemptive, as it seems clear that there is much more to come from Guanyu, both from this body of work and others that will eventually see the light of day. But that’s okay, as it will provide some much needed context when looking back to see where things started versus how they are going. And going places is something that is plainly happening here. So, with great admiration and genuine curiosity, I wanted to pose some serious questions his way as to place a marker at this point in his career. Then, one day we will look back and see where the road map to success was born. And then I can hit him up again to find out more!
Thank you, Guanyu, for providing us with this context.
From Resident Aliens
Bio -
徐冠宇 Guanyu Xu (b.1993 Beijing) is an artist currently based in Chicago and a lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the winner of the Hyéres International Festival (2020), PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai Exposure Award (2020), Philadelphia Photo Arts Center Annual Competition (2019), Lensculture Emerging Talent Award (2019), and Kodak Film Photo Award (2019). He has received artist residencies including ACRE (Chicago, IL), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), and Light Work (Syracuse, NY).
His works have been exhibited and screened internationally including the Aperture Foundation, New York; ICP Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; New Orlean Museum of Art, New Orleans; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Wesleyan University, Middletown; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Mint Museum, Charlotte; 36th Kasseler Dokfest, Germany, and others. His work can be found in public collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, and New Orleans Museum of Art. His works have been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, ArtAsiaPacific, The New Yorker, W Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Musée Magazine, Dazed China, Der Greif, and China Photographic Publishing House.
Interview -
Michael Kirchoff: Every photographer experiences that spark that drives them into the direction of image-making. How did you get your start, and what were your early influences?
Guanyu Xu: I started taking photographs when I was in high school, because my friends and I were creating e-magazines. Then I went to Beijing Film Academy for a photo program. But it was really traditional. I didn’t really know what contemporary art/photography was. So I would say my early influence are cinema and traditional photo masters.
MK: What is your primary objective in photography?
GX: Influenced by the production of ideology in American visual culture and a conservative familial upbringing in China, my practice extends from examining the production of power in photography to the question of personal freedom and its relationship to political regimes.
MK: I wanted to congratulate you on receiving the Project Development Grant from CENTER for 2021. Can you tell us a bit about your project, Resident Aliens, and how it was conceived?
GX: Thank you! Resident Aliens is an ongoing project examining citizenship. It is from my own experience and the accumulation of similar stories from my friends that drove me to start Resident Aliens. For many immigrants, the home could never be private and secure. In Resident Aliens, I find participants who hold different visa statuses in the United States. Upon invitation, I photograph their homes and personal belongings, and then print these images out in addition to my subjects’ personal photo archives. These prints are installed back into their space as temporary installations and additionally documented as photographs.
From Resident Aliens
MK: I'm initially intrigued by this work as an installation. In viewing them as photographs and witnessing the level of time and commitment to every image, it isn't easy to return to them without seeing something new each time. The phases of creating the final photograph are each their own challenge, clearly. How long does it take on average to complete one of these?
GX: I photograph each participant in two sessions. Usually the first session takes 1-2 hours. After that, I will have to spend hours to get the prints ready. The second session, for the installation, usually takes around three hours. My performative actions with participants is not only an integral social practice in representing their complex identities and histories, but it’s also a negotiation of power and assumed stereotypes. As a “foreigner,” I transform their temporary states of being into installations and preserve the constructions as photographs. The project presents immigrants’ intimately nuanced experiences within their homes and in the U.S. at large. These convergences of spaces and times invite the viewer to enter into spaces of fluidity rather than fixed perspectives. They mobilize the viewer’s gaze, imagination, and care, defying strict definition.
MK: Do you find it better to construct these images in a mindful way or work more intuitively?
GX: It’s combination of the both. Usually I will have something to begin with when I work with and print out the images I have. During the installation I will figure out the rest, in situ.
MK: How much involvement do the individuals whose homes and belongings you are photographing have? Is this part a collaborative process at all?
GX: It’s an important part of the project. I also use that time to have conversations with them, so I would know about their stories.
MK: We can only show the several images you have completed so far here, as this is very much a work in progress. How many photographs do you think there will be when you feel it's been completed. Also, how will the grant from CENTER be levied into finalizing this work?
GX: I don’t know yet. I’m applying to different opportunities so I can expand this project outside of Chicago, to different cities in the US. I will use CENTER’s grant to purchase a printer so I can save more money from printing outside. They really cost a lot.
From Resident Aliens
From Resident Aliens
MK: Do you see your work for Resident Aliens as having the means to produce any change in how we perceive immigrants? Or, will this require a substantial shift in the immigration policies of the United States?
GX: I do not have that ambitious goal. I want to do the best I could and if the work can shine some light to the issue then that would be great. I also enjoyed the responses I get from my collaborators during the whole process. The actual change in this society definitely needs more collaborative work in a national/international level.
MK: Do you have any other creative pursuits, or has photography become the one obsession that always takes precedence?
GX: I do use other medium, but I think they all in a way deal with image-making.
MK: How do you know if you're ever really done with a specific body of work? Do you ever go back to revisit images or collections to improve upon what you felt was previously finished?
GX: I don’t usually say one project is completely finished as they are not a static being. I also like to re-appreciate my own work for new work.
From Resident Aliens
MK: Once you've achieved finding your particular style or voice, do you ever feel the need to break out and follow a different path?
GX: Yes, otherwise it would be boring.
MK: How do you see your work progressing into the future? Do you have anything new you are currently working on that we should be on the lookout for, or is all of your energy wrapped up with Resident Aliens?
GX: Yes, it’s the project I mainly focus on as I also teach full-time. But, I do have some studio projects that I plan to do soon!
You can find more of Guanyu's work on his website here.
All photographs, ©Guanyu Xu
