PROJECTS — KanthyPeng

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Ground Sea
First published in 2025
20.3 × 27 cm
Chinese, English
Offset printing, exposed binding

Photography and Concept: Kanthy Peng
Poet: Geng Yao
Designer: Muxi Gao, Company Per Form

Kanthy Peng’s debut artist book, Ground Sea, weaves a visual narrative exploring depression, memory, and loss through 73 photographs.

The title takes inspiration from an archaic West Indian term, which anthropologist and feminist Emily Martin used to capture her sensations when observing the Affective Disorder Clinical Rounds, “(Ground-sea is the name) for a swell of the ocean, which occurs in calm weather and without obvious cause, breaking on the shore in heavy roaring billows. A distant storm, out of sight, is often the cause of a ground-sea.”

In Ground Sea, Peng re-orchestrates photographs spanning over a decade and multiple projects into a new diptych-structured work. The first part, Sunset Watchers, unfolds through black-and-white portraits of three women reenacting a phantom folktale following the 1896 tsunami in Japan—images that also allude to the anxious premonition of those living with depression. Interspersed colored photographs recall Peng’s bodily memory of being bedridden due to illness. The second part, Kuāfù Chases The Sun, carries stills from two video works about Peng’s father, who retired from the People’s Liberation Army ten years after his daughter left home. In these images, his body is constantly propelled forward by the cogs of a system, breaking the stagnation of the first part, only to fall into nothingness ultimately.

Peng likens the depressed body to a receptor and amplifier of signals from the future, much like the camera she holds in her hands. In the tension between stillness and motion, waiting and chasing, the book poses a question: Are those paralyzed by the impending catastrophe in need of treatment, or is it the society—numbed by its relentless pursuit of progress—that requires awakening?

购买链接

《地浪》
2025第一次印刷
20.3 x 27厘米
中英双语
胶版印刷，裸脊装订

摄影及概念：阚辛
诗歌：更杳
书籍设计：高沐曦, Company Per Form

阚辛的首部艺术家书《地浪》以73张照片编织了一场关于抑郁、记忆与失落的视觉叙事。

书名“地浪”源于古代西印度群岛人使用的词汇。人类学家、女性主义者Emily Martin在观摩情感性疾患的临床会诊教学时，用“地浪”来形容她的所见所感，“……指的是在晴朗的天气里，毫无任何明显原因之下，海洋突然隆起，以沉重咆哮的巨浪之势扑上岸边。造成地浪的原因，通常是一场发生在肉眼所及之外的遥远风暴。”

在《地浪》中，跨越十年、散落于多个项目的照片被阚辛重新构建为一部双曲结构的新作。第一部分《等日落的人》由三名女性的黑白肖像串联，她们重演了日本1896年海啸后的幽灵传说，画面同时也指涉了抑郁症者对未来的焦灼预感；彩色摄影则回溯了艺术家因疾病长期卧床不起的身体记忆。第二部分《夸父逐日》由两部关于父亲的影像作品的截帧构成，阚辛的父亲在女儿离乡十年后从解放军退休，画面中他的身体被不断运转的齿轮裹挟前进，打破了前半部分的 “停滞”状态，却最终陷入虚无。

在《地浪》中，阚辛将抑郁的身体比作接收和放大未来信号的装置，就如她手中的相机一样。在静止与动态、等待与追逐的博弈中，这本书质问：究竟是因将至的灾难而深陷抑郁的个体更需要被治疗，还是在盲目进步中逐渐麻木不仁的社会更需要被唤醒？

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