coup de foudre - Limited Edition 1 of 5 Photograph

In 2010 I moved to Beijing to work for the artist Ai Weiwei, preparing his photography retrospective. I would commute over an hour every day from downtown Beijing to his studio in CaoChangDi, outside the 5th Ring Road. My walk from the bus station to our studio would bring me under a bridge where the walls were often covered with hand painted numbers and Chinese characters. I later found out these were primitive forms of advertising, offering various services and the telephone number to call. Every few weeks I would be surprised to see these "ads" haphazardly painted over. As a means to censor and "harmonize and beautify" the city, local government would routinely paint over these ads. Of course it would only be a matter of days before new ads were painted again. I started to photograph the walls under the bridge, as I found the texture of the wall and the way paint dripped down the concrete to be beautiful. I then hand colored the images in photoshop, and created the works of art you see here. I don't think this outcome was what the government intended, but in my own small way I am happy to be able to subvert an attempt at censorship by transforming it into something beautiful. This original photograph is an archival pigment print on premium matte Hahnemuehle paper, shown mounted on 1/4 inch sintra, and framed in a custom handmade wood frame. The face of the frame is 1/4 inch wide and the depth is 2 inches. Sold unframed. Edition of 5 prints only.