Yan Wang Preston
Mother River
Y1: 江源
The River Source
Call for partners
Impressions Gallery and Gallery of Photography Ireland are seeking partner venues to realise
a touring exhibition of Yan Wang Preston’s Mother River, staged at our respective venues and
other UK and Irish venues from 2017 onwards.
Mother River is a photographic odyssey that is remarkable both for its pictures and its story. Over a
period of four years, Yan Preston documented the entire Yangtze River, often known as China’s Mother
River. The epic project follows a simple premise: to photograph the 6,211km route of the river, using
a strict ‘point system’ to photograph at precisely every 100 kilometres. The result is an insightful look
at the whole inner life of China, ranging from the high Tibetan Plateau through the Three Gorges and
finally reaching Shanghai.
Mother River was selected for The British Council’s China Cultural Exchange Programme 2015, touring
to major museums in China and exhibited at Shanghai Photo, September 2015. Elements of Mother
River were exhibited at SWATCH Faces, Venice Biennale, 2015.
We are seeking expressions of interest from partner venues in the UK and Ireland to contribute
a participation fee of £3000+VAT (or Euro euivalent) to help turn this important photographic
exploration into a touring exhibition, shown for the first time in its entirety outside China.
If you are interested in being a partner venue please contact Pippa Oldfield, Head of Programme at
[email protected] to find out more.
About Mother River
‘Yan Preston’s pictures of the Yangtze River will stop you in your tracks. This is a photographic odyssey
that is remarkable for the pictures and remarkable as a story. This young and fearless woman set off to
make a pictorial record of the entire Mother River, stopping every 100km to take a picture on her large
plate camera. The result is an astonishing look at the whole inner life of China, composed and shot with
great skill and ingenuity in often the most adverse conditions. Four years later, this wondrous series of
pictures is being made into an exhibition that will thrill and enthrall and educate. A work of genius and an
eye-opening experience.’
Zelda Cheatle
Lead Curator, World Photography Organisation
To realise her ambitious project, Preston made nine field trips between 2010 and 2014. Photographing
the 6,211 kilometres of the Yangtze River at intervals of 100 kilometres, Preston had to find and
photograph sixty-three locations in incrediby diverse and often remote terrain.
Since the river source is 5,400 metres above sea level in the Tibetan Plateau, and half of its length flows
through some of the most majestic mountains on the Earth, Mother River is on one level a modern-day
adventure. Nature provided many potential hazards, such as high-altitude sickness, floods, sandstorms,
earthquakes, and mudslides. Technical challenges were presented by the large plate camera -- the kind
used by nineteenth century explorers -- that Preston employed. Producing an 8x10” negative, the plate
camera offers images with astonishing detail and resolution, but is cumbersome and complex to use
on location. Meanwhile, Preston, the photographer-artist-explorer had to face the intellectual challenges
embedded in the rigid ‘point system’ she had adopted. What should she photograph at the predetermined locations that offered such varied topography?
For Chinese-born Preston, Mother River is in part an epic pilgrimage to her native country: an exhaustive
exploration of a powerful symbol that reconnects her with the ancestoral homeland. Closely associated
with Chinese traditional paintings and an icon of the national landscape, the Yangtze represents the
folklore of traditional China. However, with over 30 hydroelectric dams on its course, the river is
synonymous with China’s rapid industrialisation. Preston’s combination of ‘scientific sampling’ fused
with the language of landscape pictorial tradition raises questions about the politics of geography, visual
representation, and national myths.
Y7: 距江源600公里
600km from the river source
Y11: 距江源1000公里
1,000km from the river source
Y18: 距江源1700公里
1,700km from the river source
Y21: 距江源2000公里
2,000km from the river source
Y24: 距江源2300公里
2,300km from the river source
Y25: 距江源2400公里
2,400km from the river source
Y32: 距江源3100公里
3,100km from the river source
Y40: 距江源3900公里
3,900km from the river source
Y59: 距江源5800公里
5,800km from the river source
Y61: 距江源6000公里
6,000km from the river source
Y63: 距江源6200公里。长江入海口。
6,200km from the river source.
The River Mouth.
About Yan Wang Preston
Born in Hennan Province, China, in 1976, Yan Wang Preston originally trained as a doctor in Shanghai.
She moved to the UK in 2005 and gained a Masters Degree in Photography from Leeds Metropolitan
University. She is currently completing a PhD photography at the Land/ Water and the Visual Arts
Research Centre, Plymouth University.
Preston was selected as ‘Reviewers Choice’ at FORMAT International Photography Festival 2014 and
has been the recipient of grants from both Arts Council England and British Council. Her work has
been exhibited widely in festivals, including Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts (2014) and
Noorderlicht Photography Festival, the Netherlands (2012). She has also exhibited at the National Portrait
Gallery, London (2006) and more recently at Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale (2014). In 2015 she was
selected as part of the Britain-China Culture Exchange, with Mother River exhibited at Three Gorges
Museum, Chongqing; Wuhan Art Museum; and The Swatch Art Peace Museum Hotel, Shanghai.
Preston’s long term projects, in both UK and China, deal with the relationship between nature and
culture, social regeneration and economic and environmental developments.
Partnership roles
• Impressions Gallery will lead on budget, financial management and tour management
• Impressions Gallery and Gallery of Photography Ireland will lead on curation, artist liaison, and all
aspects of the exhibition (printing, framing, fabrication of supporting visual materials and copy for
accompanying interpretation)
• Impressions Gallery will lead on PR and marketing and liaison with partner venues; partners to
participate in reciprocal marketing; partner venues and exhibition dates to be included in all PR
communications
• Partner venues will be fully credited as co-producers of the exhibition
• Partner venues will receive the full exhibition as detailed in Exhibition Content below, supplied ready
to hang, for a period of 8 to 10 weeks, plus additional time for installation and take-down
• Partner venues will cover costs of their own preview event (including attendance of the artist),
installation, production of interpretation and marketing materials, and any associated events they
may wish to hold
• Partner venues will organise and pay for onward transport if the tour is consecutive
• Whilst every effort will be made to arrange a consecutive tour, should this not be possible partner
venues will cover two-way transport within mainland UK and Ireland; Impressions Gallery will provide
interim storage for the exhibition
• Venues are responsible for insurance in transit and in situ; replacement value £25,000
Exhibition content
Artworks
66 digital archival colour photographs (representing 63 locations, three of which are diptychs)
Presented as 40x50cm drymounted prints, unglazed, in bespoke white frames
Additional visual material
Large map of China presenting Mother River shooting plan (size and presentation to be confirmed)
Optional display of artefacts and ephemera from Yan Preston’s journeys to be shown in vitrine(s)
Interpretation
Artwork for introduction panel, information sheet and captions (venue to produce in their preferred format
to suit their space)
3 short films of Yan Preston discussing her work, filmed on location on the Yangtze, displayed on a DVD and
monitor (venue to provide)
Artist information folder, artist questionnaire, and links to further resources
Gallery trail for 5-12 year-olds (venue to adapt to their own context)
Education
Preston is an articulate speaker with excellent English who can deliver artist talks and participate in
education programmes (by direct negotation with venue)
Marketing
Text for venue to produce press release
Six hi-res press images
Social media promotion by Impressions Gallery and Gallery of Photography Ireland
Other support
Curatorial advice to adapt the exhibition to venue’s own space
Touring handbook and technical advice on installation
Space required
Approximately 50 - 80 linear metres; minimum 47 linear metres
Further information
Contact us
For further information including additional text and images from Mother River, or to register your
interest in becoming a partner venue for the exhibition please contact Pippa Oldfield, Head of
Programme at:
telephone: email: 01274 737843
[email protected]
About Impressions Gallery
Impressions Gallery helps people understand the world through photography. The Gallery collaborates
with photographers and organisations nationally and internationally to commission, exhibit and publish
photography. Our work with new emerging photographers and often-overlooked artists cements and
builds their careers.
Established in 1972 as one of the first specialist photographic galleries in Europe, Impressions has
grown to become one of the UK’s leading independent venues for contemporary photography. We are
located in the heart of Bradford, UNESCO City of Film. We work with local communities and young
people to make photography accessible to all through our formal and informal education. Impressions is
a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity, funded by Arts Council England as a National Portfolio
Organisation, and suported by Bradford Metropolitan District Council.
www.impressions-gallery.com
About Gallery of Photography Ireland
Since its inception in 1978 the Gallery of Photography is Ireland’s national centre for contemporary
photography. Located in an award-winning building in Temple Bar, the cultural quarter of Dublin, the
Gallery has exhibited many of the leading names in photography and provides an important platform
for emerging artists from Ireland and abroad. In addition to exhibitions, the gallery also provides
photography courses, a specialist photography bookshop, studio / darkroom facilities, and state-of-theart digital production facilities for use by independent photographers.
The Gallery, which is non-profit making, is funded by the Arts Council and Dublin City Council, and also
welcomes donations, sponsorship and support from members to help fund its activities.
www.galleryofphotography.ie
Mother River has been supported by Arts Council England; Shanyan Township Government, Sichuan Province;
Beijing Orthopaedic Hospital; Swatch; Blackpool & Fylde College and Plymouth University, amongst others.