Summoning
by Yiming Zhu
How the deism supports and reconstructs contemporary life. How does it subtly affect people’s mentality and state of mind? How do people of different races and cultures share their beliefs and spiritual pursuits? Based on curiosity about the spiritual world and uncertain life, I explored folk beliefs to elucidate life’s problems and symbolic culture. “Summoning” combined the oral history of folklore in my hometown Guangdong, China and my experiences of living in London. In a metaphorical way, it discusses the spiritual connection of western and eastern cultures via different symbols. These symbols and underlying stories come from folklores, novels, fairy tales and daily life, such as garlic cloves hanging on the branches in front of the door, and bears imitating old women… In my visual choice, I created fictional reality with my camera, concealed scenes with regional features. In some of the images, I injected my personal abstract comprehension of faith. Photography is a bridge of my imagination and reality, I hope to know stories of different cultures through it, excavate the shared beliefs that seem to exist across them.
