Solastalgia｜身是客

Solastalgia is a form of melancholy felt when someone returns to their hometown but realizes what they see betrays what they had memorized. As Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined the term “solastalgia” in 2004 by combining the Latin words sōlācium (comfort) and the Greek root -algia (pain), the artist borrows this term to describe his paradox relation to this specific homesickness felt at home: while he suffers from emotional distress caused by the impossibility of verifying the past, he also gets addicted to the erotics of nostalgia and the feeling of being in exile.

This project started at a time when the urbanization at the artist’s hometown reached its climax. Finding the tremendous changes hard to bear, the artist traveled around the place with his camera in an almost paranoid manner, and tried to salvage as many memories as possible before the bulldozers cleared them away. Meanwhile, by photographing his relatives and close friends in a self-reflexive way, Shi explored his psychological response to the vagueness caused by the fractured memories. As the artist relies on the photography’s capability in transcending time and healing memories to reconcile with his lost sense of belonging, he is also trying to construct a new form of identity by tying himself closer to this medium.

“身是客”是一个从自我情感出发的作品，一次把社会经验融入到个人叙事的行为。怀乡是一个创作者的永恒命题，它铆钉着个体命运在时代洪流中的落脚点，也是人们构筑的未来乌托邦。作者给出的乡愁是无解的，回到故乡，身已是客，只得面对这份决裂，但怀乡的过程或许是舒适的，这也诱使他拿起相机做起了注定徒劳的工作。从开始被乡愁击中，急迫于给现实以记录，到妥协共存，自然地梳理情感和现实，作者用了数年的时间。在这个过程中，怀乡的无所适从在消退，摄影作为主要载体，把难以名状的情感转化到了同样无法被描述的图像之中。它是社会奔流向前的过程中，一个坦诚的回应。

Shi yangku | 史阳琨

Shi Yangkun was born in 1992, Henan province, China. After undergraduate study in journalism, he earned a master degree in Documentary Photography from University of the Arts London in 2017. From the onset of his career, Shi has worked as a multimedia reporter, he has covered multiple in-depth reports by including voices from those most intimately involved in some social events in China. Meanwhile, Shi pushes himself to develop research-based projects , and uses the language of photography to explore the complexity of Chinese society in a more subtle way.

史阳琨，1992年生于中国河南省。在本科学习新闻学后，于2017年在伦敦艺术学院获得纪实摄影硕士学位。目前从事记者工作，他曾报道过多个深度报道，探讨中国社会里不同人的声音。同时，艺术家推动自己开展研究性项目，用摄影的语言以更微妙的方式探索中国社会的复杂性。