REN HANG

Life

Born in 1987 in Jilin, China, Ren attended the Communication University of China in Beijing where he majored in advertising, and lived and worked until 2017. In 2017, following sustained periods of depression, the artist died by suicide at the age of 29.

Ren Hang Photography

In 2007, Ren bought a small Minolta point-and-shoot camera and began taking pictures of his friends to counter the dullness of his studies.

Ren’s high-contrast photographs of thin naked bodies scaled in cold hues retain a homemade quality despite being formed from intricate arrangements of contorted limbs, concealed behind exotic animals or set against green foliage and cityscapes, showcasing sleek surfaces and angular membranes.

Nude Photographs

A self-taught photographer, Ren’s subjects were often friends and models who he trusted to respond to his directions in a process of performance and play. Untitled and dated for convenience, Ren’s images invoked sexual liberation in an otherwise heavily censored cultural context.

Untitled (2014), for instance, shows a young girl with a sharp bob and ebony skin, back arched against a crimson wall, the shadow of a hand casting over her naked pelvis. A strand of black hair brushed over her upper lip she looks to the viewers with the same obstinacy expected from her male counterparts.

Artworks

Influenced by Surrealist filmmaker Shuji Terayama, Ren incorporated juxtaposition and fantasy to later images. Resulting photographs show fluid identities, bodies stacked and entwined together, sometimes seemingly sexless, and gender fluid male looking models wearing silk stockings and red lipstick for example.

Amongst them, Untitled (2015), depicts two naked man, entwined together such that the bodies become almost one contorted body. The first man stares into the camera, both hands wrapped around the second body’s shoulders.

Controversy and Censorship

Ren’s photographs were developed and scanned in his private studios to avoid obscenity charges, and the possibility of censorship. Once, as the artist was shooting outside, a neighbour called the police who attempted an arrest on the grounds of ‘group licentiousness’. Ren’s camera was regularly confiscated, his website shut down, with exhibitions cancelled under ‘suspicion of sex’. The artist’s work is still deemed controversial today, often being spat upon and taken down when exhibited.

Despite the controversial nature of his works, Ren only started thinking about their significance after gaining international exposure. To Ren, it was more important to create photographs that were interesting to the photographer and subject than to make political statements.

Poetry and Publications

Ren’s first poetry collection, Word or two (2017), contained translated works by the artist written from 2007—2016. In them, Ren addresses love and the fear of loneliness across short lines documenting the experience of loving and living with others. Ren also documented his depression online, published on a website, under a menu titled ‘My Depression’.

Exhibitions, Awards and Accolades

In 2010, Ren Hang received the 2010 Third Terna Contemporary Art Award in Italy.

Ren’s works have been shown worldwide. In addition to collaborations with fashion brands like Gucci, Rick Owens, and Loewe, Ren’s photographs have been featured in magazines such as GQ Style, L’Officiel, and Vice. In 2015, the quarterly photography journal Aperture used one of Ren’s photographs as the cover for its Spring issue centred around ‘Queerness’.

Select solo exhibitions include Love, Ren Hang, posthum, C/O Berlin, Berlin (2020); Love, Ren Hang, posthum, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2019); Human Love, Fotografiska, Stockholm (2017); Naked/Nude, Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam (2017); Athens Love, Klein Sun Gallery, New York (2015); The Wild, OstLicht Gallery, Vienna (2015); and In addition to sleep, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen (2014).

Selected group exhibitions include: Medium of Desire: An International Anthology of Photography and Video, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York (2015-2016); Contemporary Photography in China 2009-2014, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2014); FACELESS, Stichting Mediamatic, Amsterdam (2014); Fuck Off 2 Chinese Contemporary Art Document, Groninger Museum, Netherlands (2013); Originate from Energy Resource, Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, Moscow (2012); and Qui & Ren Hang INNER EAR, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2011).

Website and Instagram

The artist’s Instagram account can be found here.

Elaine YJ Zheng | Ocula | 2021