Free Element is how Chinese-born conceptual artist DoDo Jin Ming refers to her recent series of seascapes. The title speaks of the elusive and emotional side of nature, rather than specifics about an ocean or a place. A marvelous opportunity to view her recent seascapes will be at The Art Institute of Chicago, from November 1 through February 14, in their exhibition: Regarding Sea and Skies: Photographic Seascapes of Gustave Le Gray, Hiroshi Sugimoto and DoDo Jin Ming.
After training as a classical violinist in her native Beijing, DoDo moved to Hong Kong where she began making photographs in 1988. This last decade she has resided in New York. Over the past fifteen years she has explored the interconnections between man and nature, contrasting the camera's strength at specificity with a deeply personal and elusive sense of natural forces and intuitive wonderment. Whether photographing the great pyramids of Egypt, dying sunflowers from the Dakotas, or the roiling sea near Hong Kong, Jin Ming presents her subjects with a freshness and power uniquely her own.
Respecting the awesome power and drama found only in the sea, DoDo Jin Ming creates intense black and white images that transport the viewer to a precipice about to be submerged under a cascade of water, often risking her own life to gain access to the ocean from jetties and rocks. Printing her negatives, occasionally combining two for additional effect, Jin Ming has further intensified the power of the surging waves by blanketing them under an engulfing sky. Although this technique of multiple-printing harks back to the mid-19th century and the majestic and peaceful seascapes of Gustave Le Gray, DoDo Jin Ming's turbulent images are more akin to the paintings of J.M.W. Turner and Winslow Homer. We also feel strong literary connotations, such as Edgar Allen Poe's Descent into the Maelstrom and Dante's Inferno.
