This project, Return of the Gods, continues my ongoing interest in Chinese civil society. While many of my previous works originated in my hometown and explored civil society around its aesthetics, my recent works have expanded from the rural areas of my hometown to a wider range of Chinese rural society, focusing on the richness of these forms of folk beliefs.

These new statues of gods and goddesses are strange and bizarre, and at the same time, their images are related to all walks of life in this era. These images of statues and goddesses originated from the present time have broken the original beliefs and aesthetics of religions, and have become the Bodhisattva who will be sculpted to correspond to whatever the common people need.

Published in 2023
21.7 x 30 cm
60 pages per volume, 6 volumes total

Showcased as part of Jimei x Arles: Travelling Photobook Showcase at the 9th SIPF Photobook Showcase

Artist Biography:

Zhang Xiao Born in 1981 in Yantai city, Shandong province, China, Zhang Xiao graduated from the Department of Architecture and Design at Yantai University in 2005. He was a photojournalist for Chongqing Morning Post. Zhang won the Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography of Harvard University in 2018.

He won the Three Shadows Photography Award in 2010 with They series. He also received the second Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Award in 2009, The Photography Talent Award (France) in 2010 and the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie in 2011 with his Coastline series.

Zhang has participated in several solo and group exhibitions, including “ The World in 2015 ”, “Civilization: The Way We Live Now” (Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China), “ Unfamiliar Familiarities ”, (Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, Switzerland), “ Photoquai ”, (Quai Branly Museum, Paris, France ), and “ Apple ”, (Lianzhou Photography Museum, Guangdong, China), “ Social Geography: Ten Journeys with a Camera, (Shanghai Centre of Photography, Shanghai, China), “ Photography and Video Experiments in Southwestern China since 2000 ”, (A4 Art Museum, Chengdu, China), “The Farm”, (chi k11 Art Space, Shenyang, China), etc. Zhang currently lives and works in Chengdu city, Sichuan province, China.