Xiaoxiao Xu
I’m always searching for an atmosphere that somehow relates to a sense of alienation. I’m at home in neither Chinese, nor Dutch culture. I’m in-between the two. When I see something that evokes that same feeling I want to photograph it. I look for places that resonate with my emotions, places that are somehow incomprehensible.
Xiaoxiao Xu via tonhendriks.nl, 2016
Having emigrated from China to the Netherlands at the age of fourteen, Xiaoxiao Xu (1984, China) describes her photography as the antidote to the isolation she experienced, and a way to intuitively express herself without needing language. An article in a Dutch newspaper about residents from remote agricultural regions in China building homemade aircrafts formed the inspiration for her series, Aeronautics in the Backyard. Xu travelled to China to capture this absurd yet infinitely appealing phenomenon on film. The resulting images attest to the beauty and humor in everyday life while leaving enough room for the viewer to dream, just as these Chinese ‘aeronauts’ do.
