Beijing via salvaged family photos – ‘an epic portrait of anonymous humanity’

Constructed from film negatives salvaged from a recycling plant in Beijing over the course of 30 years, the Chinese artist Lei Lei’s meticulous project Recycled combines some 3,000 images to create a dizzying, eerie animation. The effect is both a flip-book glimpse at three decades of Beijing’s history, and an uneasy, voyeuristic peak into the private lives of thousands of people – or, as the artist describes it, ‘an almost epic portrait of anonymous humanity’.