Jing Jin City and Miracle Village, Daniel Blau Gallery - exhibition review
Two very different subjects occupy this intriguing and courageous exhibition. Andi Schmied’s Jing Jin City comprises photographs from an uninhabited suburban estate in Beijing, while Sofia Valiente’s Miracle Village documents the day-to-day life of a remote community in Palm Beach County, Florida. The artists’ intrusions into social and architectural spaces hold their stories.
Valiente lived for a year in Miracle Village, home to more than 100 male (and some female) convicted sex offenders who, due to legislation forbidding them to come within 1,000 feet of any place where children gather, cannot live within a regular town or city. Valiente’s portraits show mostly homely scenes: a woman surrounded by make-up and wigs maintaining her former identity, an elderly man snoozing with his dog, and a young man lying on his bed exposing an electronic tag. Her photographs capture shame, sadness and boredom, but also community life.
In contrast, Schmied found permission to use the overgrown gardens and deserted villas in Jing Jin. She converted rooms into her own personal galleries, creating Land Art installations from cut circles of grass. From there, she scattered cuttings across the floor of a bleak room and later laid a carpet of straw.
These abandoned structures contrast with the visual activity in Miracle Village.
Until February 13, (020 7831 7998, danielblau.com)
