When Overlapped - Family Identities
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It's cooling down in Shanghai, I put on my scarf and intended to buy cigarettes.There’s a group of stray cats playing in the garden downstairs, I glanced at them and walked straight away. Ten minutes later, I return to the garden. Only two cats were sitting there. One is grey and the other is black and white, they were looking at me. I stopped, lit a cigarette and slowly walked towards them. Suddenly they ran, in two different directions.
On February 27, 2020, China's Ministry of Justice publicly solicited opinions on "permanent residence in China for foreigners". The name ‘Guillaume’ crashed my mind. I tried to find him on social media, but got no response. I realized I should do something, but what could I do?He’s Guillaume, my cousin. Since his parents died, we have lost the connection. I know he is still in China, living in a small city in the south.
Jean is Guillaume's father. He's tall, dark-skinned, and his eyes stare at others when he talks. Guillaume is as tall as him now, isn't he? I imagined his current appearance.
Jean made a traditional African dish, a fish stew with tomatoes. We snuck into the kitchen to eat it. Jean shouted at my aunt, "Do you want to eat their spit?"When I recall that today, I think he meant that the family should eat together.
Who's the woman in this snapshot? I have no idea why this photo is in the family album.I reached Guillaume via Wechat, but we had nothing to talk about. He just like a friend who had just met.
Oh probably not, we don't need to introduce ourselves.
Wei, the person in green dress is Guillaume's mother, who taught herself English at a very young age. She wanted to go abroad. Wei once told me that she was so stupid when she was young, and that the thing she regretted most was being with Jean.
I scanned these archival photos and sent them to Guillaume, he replied: thank you.I'm selfish. I know Guillaume is a better custodian of these photos than I am. But I'm afraid that he won't care about them, that he will smudge them, that he'll lose them.
Almost 20 years ago, Wei and I were sitting in the car on the way to the airport, and I looked back through the window to see Guillaume. He was playing soccer in the garden, and didn't notice that I was watching him. I always remember this scene.That scene came to my mind when I got to know that his father had died. It was still that scene in my mind a few years ago when his mother also died.
As my family, Guillaume's parents divorced when he was a baby. Both of us have a broken family, both of us have a fragmented childhood. We are the same. I don't dare mention these past memories to him, because I don't want to break his heart.I constantly asking myself, are we really the same?
Tracing For “Yu Xiaomei”
This project is a research on a lady who was born in China, 1947, and passed away in Africa at the end of 2017.
Yu xiaomei, name of the main character, was my grandma. Her daughter has married an African from Côte d'Ivoire in 1992. Yu determined to move to Africa alone to stay with her daughter at the age of sixty-five, and never had a chance to back to China again. The last time I saw Yu, she was seriously ill and has lost her language skills in Africa. I accompanied Yu and document the last 7 days of her life. Eventually I buried her in Congo, Africa.
In order to better understand the underlying reasons for losing Yu, I began to trace her past and analyze it. Comprehensive collection of related images had gathered, meanwhile, I started to reconstruct people who comes and goes in Yu’ s life by splitting, regrouping the images and mixed with diverse languages. In the research for Yu from my perspective, I found myself immersed in self-identity under the globalization in this chaotic world.
Yu Xiaomei In 1969, 2017
archival inkjet print, 7 x 5 inches.
Family Archive, 2018
mixed media installation
11.8 x 11.8 inches
Going Home Is A Long Way To Start, 2019
Yu wears her favourate dress for the first time visiting Africa.
c-print, inkjet print, collage
32 inches
Socialist Puzzle, 2019
Yu was the one in thousands of the working class.
archival inkjet print, collage
dimensions variable
"Beds In My Hometown are Made of Ivory", Shanghai 1989, 2019
He is the first African students who comes to China. Yu looking at her son-in-law and photographing them.
c-print, collage
4 x 10 inches
Rare Occasion, Shanghai 1991, 2019
Yu's neighbours are peeping in through a crack when black people visiting her home.
archival inkjet print, collage
4 x 6 inches
To Your Place, 2019
Yu's daughter left China in 1998.
archival inkjet print, collage
10 x 12 inches
“Ni Hao”, 2018
Yu's daughter was making a phone call to her mother.
archival inkjet print, collage
8 x 8 inches
Boarding, Ethiopian, 2017
I am on the same way to Congo as Yu.
inkjet print
32 inches
Home, Lubumbashi, 2017
Yu asked them to paint "home" in Chinese before she was ill.
inkjet print
10 x 12 inches
Nanny Christian and Mimi, Lubumbashi, 2017
Yu had told me on telephone that she didn't like them.
inkjet print
16 x 12 inches
I Met Yu, Lubumbashi, 2017
Yu is delirious.
inkjet print
12 x 16 inches
Yu's Daughter, Lubumbashi, 2017
Yu's daughter tells me that Yu read the Koran before she can't talk. But I don't believe it.
inkjet print
16 x 12 inches
Funeral, Lubumbashi, 2017
"Fallen leaves return to the roots", but Yu has no choice to back.
inkjet print
10 x 12 inches
Yu's Shroud, 2018
markers on fabric
dimensions variable
Dancing, 2017Yu's grandson starts dancing because Yu is in heaven.
Yu's Daughter Is Having Massage, Lubumbashi, 2017
Yu was nanny Christian's massage teacher.
inkjet print
10 x 12 inches
Certificate, 2019
Yu's medical death report is in French.
c-print, markers on archival inkjet print
dimensions variable
Yu's Daughter Standing By Her Grave, Lubumbashi, 2017
inkjet print
16 x 12 inches
Back Home, Lubumbashi, 2017
I lost Yu.
inkjet print
12 x 16 inches
Self-Portrait With Yu in 2019, 2019
c-print, inkjet print, collage
10 x 12 inches
West Bank
My Place
Shanghai, July 2017
Long Island, Philippine, April 2017
Shanghai, December 2018
Wuxi, February 2018
Wuxi, February 2018
Chongqing, December 2018
Shanghai, May 2017
Shanghai, April 2017
Shanghai, April 2018
Neil, Shanghai, May 2018
Shanghai, May 2017
Hangzhou, July 2017
Shanghai, December 2017
Selfie, Shanghai, February 2018
BIOGRAPHY
朱森杰 Zhu Senjie (b.1996) is a photo based artist currently in Shanghai and Chicago. His practice is driven by family history, social memory, and the global issue. He received his BFA from East China Normal University in 2018, and he is an MFA Photography candidate at Columbia College Chicago.
Senjie dissects himself through archival images to try understanding who he is and what is his connection to the world. His works play with the shift of personal memories and social identities. Recently, his work Guillaume nominated by Banshan Photography Award.
