China 2011
Nested at the centre of a network of canals the 55 bridges city Lost and found somewhere in the Jiangsu province Spared by the passing of years and the ticking of clocks Tong Li is a beautiful blessed place, a geographical poem Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
In the all grey streets of the Bund on monsoon days The balloon man with his portable rainbow Splashes colors around in a Hockney manner Art walks in the streets looking for adventure A dream for a penny is a long distance flight Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
Happy days never go away They stay safe with cherished memories Fast access and redundant The image of bustling cities An umbrella to protect from bad spells It was China 2011 Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
Inside looking out, a dreamy view from a mall Perspectives spotlights and framed mirror images Multiple reflections of two girls chatting at a window You can’t hear the voices they look a hologram A postponed reality, outside spills inside Or is it the other way ? Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
The Iron Dragon is the keeper of the gates While the usual overburdened bike passes through Worlds apart quietly collide, mix and mingle And the Empire grows, like flower in its crystal vase Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
The ubiquitous tricycles with their bulky loads The urban vision of a thriving city that’s alive A throbbing metropolis, half human, half concrete Booming and breathing statue of a future in motion Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
Music and lights on a hot Guangzhou monsoon night Silhouettes like Chinese shadow cutouts move away Bright neon lights befriend the traditional lanterns Billboards tout and shout the Orient Express American Dream Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
Perspective of a giant shopping mall Goldfish dreaming of bullion bubbles Floating like spaceships in a definite space The fish tank stands like a partition wall The unattainable is on both sides Silent contemplation from inside Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
The amazing fashion wholesale malls of Guangzhou This one is about boudoir lingerie, you would have guessed The world is awakening and the sun rises in the East This elating feeling of the ‘American Dream’ of the early sixties Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries
Waiting for the customer the tourist and the real collector Street calligraphers sit patiently as they have done for centuries Art culture and symbolism the rhetorical alphabet imagery Each letter is a poetic symbolist image like an abstract painting Assembled they become a whole book and its illustrated story Photo Hugh Ardoin The Galleries