Photographic duo Rong Rong and inri are proof that art transcends language. Even after they married in 2000, the artists reportedly didn't share the same language for a couple of years, but that didn't stop them from moving to the forefront of contemporary photography on the mainland.
Works from this silent era include the three series In the Great Wall (2000), In Yulongxueshan (2001) and In Bad Goisern (2001), which are on display in their debut Hong Kong solo show, 'Three Begets Ten Thousand Things', at the Blindspot Annex in Aberdeen. All three feature photographs of the duo naked in natural landscapes during their travels around and outside the mainland. A sense of liberation is apparent in all, whether they are shown against the backdrop of the countryside or on the edge of a cliff.
'It's very peculiar. When we first started 10 years ago, I didn't speak Japanese and she didn't speak Chinese. So it was impossible to talk about how to take a photo,' Rong Rong, 43, says. 'At that time we had a different sense; I believe people have a sixth sense. Our sixth sense is explored and so language is useless for us. So we've a great deal of the instinctive spark. Our body and other aspects will then infuse and connect with the nature.'
That also explains why they are naked in so many of their pieces. 'A lot of times we work with nature. For instance, when we were in the desert, or at Mount Fuji, or on a cliff, if we were wearing clothes we couldn't have real contact. We needed to breathe - we wanted our bodies to breathe with nature as if they were one,' says Rong Rong (real name Lu Zhirong).
'If we were clothed, we couldn't feel the ambience [of] nature. There would be a boundary and there wouldn't be real interaction. It's about unleashing ourselves, taking off our clothes and opening up and interacting directly with nature.'
Running concurrently with this exhibition is Rong Rong's solo show at the gallery's Central premises, featuring his work between 1993 and 2000.
