(All images by Jiang Pengyi, via Blindspot Gallery)
Chinese artist Jiang Pengyi takes the concept of urban art to a whole new level in his thought provoking series, Unregistered Cities. Crafting miniature abandoned cities as a means of critiquing what he calls the “excessive urbanization, redevelopment and demolition” of Beijing, Jiang Pengyi’s creations are both urban art and social commentary. But there’s a twist…
The Unregistered Cities themselves appear in abandoned buildings. But unlike those represented in Jiang Pengyi’s sculptures, their host abandonments are not the crumbling ruins of skyscrapers, road networks and high rise apartments. They are the last remnants of Beijing’s past, abandoned houses swallowed up by the same urban zeal that the artist seeks to counter.
Abandoned houses and historic civic buildings are popular venues for urban exploration, but few would expect to find miniature ghost cities artistically represented amid the ruins of real forgotten places. Collectively, Jiang Pengyi’s urban artworks speak to our sense of past and underscore the relentless pace of the present.
Jiang Pengyi was born in Yuanjiang, Hunan province in 1977. He graduated from Beijing Institute of Art & Design in 1999 and currently lives and works in Beijing. Despite his evocative Unregistered Cities, his main artistic discipline is photography.
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