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’.
Beijing via salvaged family photos – ‘an epic portrait of anonymous humanity’
Directors: Lei Lei, Thomas Sauvin
Sound Art: Zafka
15 March 2016
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