Yan Tong — My time with Open Eye Gallery
It’s the last day of my internship, and I’m walking to work on the same road as usual. I get a feeling that all the things around me are getting slow. For me, working with Open Eye Gallery encourages me to observe. I try to observe the people, objects and environments around me, and record them through camera, pen or keyboard.
I started to this internship at the beginning of October this year, while Open Eye Gallery was preparing for LOOK Photo Biennial 2019. As maybe the only Mandarin speaker at the gallery, at first I did some translation work and that was the start of my understanding of LOOK and its central exhibition, Peer to Peer. These brilliant photographers really help me broaden my horizon in a new field. Open Eye Gallery is a culturally inclusive place and I’m so delighted to work with my mother tongue and culture — to use my cultural background to connect Open Eye with a wider audience.
I wrote a blog about Peer to Peer. It focused on two series from the exhibition that touched me the most. They are ‘Towards Evening’ from Chen Zhe and ‘Red Lights Go Grey’ from Wu Yue. Homesickness is something that almost every person studying abroad will feel from time to time. Wu Yue and Chen Zhe focus on family, and describe Chinese people’s attitude towards family and home. For the younger generation studying abroad, family is an extremely important part in our lives. No matter how long we stay abroad, we still desire to go back home. ‘Towards Evening’ express this through the image of twilight.
For ‘Red Lights Go Grey’, I have a different understanding. It is also a process of change from generation to generation. Parents will finally become old and we will grow up to take care of them. This may be more in line with Chinese attitudes towards family relationships. These works have really comforted me during my study time.
During LOOK Biennial, I attended a panel discussion held by Open Eye Gallery at Tate Liverpool. The discussion focused on women working outside with the creative industries. Some of them are not working on art at the very beginning, but all of them have really special and helpful perspectives. I understand it is not easy to work with creative industry through their stories. This experience of working in Open Eye Gallery also help me plan my future career.
It is nice to work with Open Eye Gallery. Everyone’s so friendly and they are willing to help me. With their help, I think I make progress. I do gain some useful skills in writing and designing. In order to keep a balance between the internship with my life and study, I try to do time management and that really help me deal with those busy time. I appreciate the working experience in Open Eye Gallery.
