Industry, urbanisation and marginalisation are the key ideas behind Zhou Chengzhou’s Times Paradise. The series is full of juxtapositions: past meets present, nature meets manmade, work meets leisure. Swimming pools are overshadowed by thick, billowing clouds from a power plant. Disused funfair rides have become swamped with overgrowth. A bright blue-and-yellow train slumps off its tracks. There’s a sense of nostalgia to these images, alongside a creeping feeling of disquiet. Zhou’s work as an artist, film director and writer visualises feelings of alienation – between people, places and “a broader and homogenised culture.”

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Image: Zhou Chengzhou, Times Paradise 02, (2019). 180cm x 120cm.