The attached photograph is not manipulated. I shot it in 2004. It is about confinement in urban space, and the hope of escape. The location is a storage area near Chicago, where regular people store the things they cannot fit in their homes, but that they do not want to throw away. The black ring is a kite that I made. I think that many people in China today may experience a feeling of being confined by dense cities and rapid globalization. Their minds, like mine, may be hoping for a sense that there is a way out, an alternative, a possible sense of mental freedom. This photo is from a series of photos I made, called "Circular Reasoning." There is a definite Chinese reference for me; that is the "dong tian", or "grotto heaven" from old Taoist paintings. The dong tian is supposed to be a cave high in the mountains where people can ascend to heaven. I find this magic idea exciting and I hope that my kite pictures capture that feeling. In honor of this exhibition, I am calling this image "Field of Vision".

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