Four Seasons: Spring

Born in the northern province of Jilin and educated at The Art Institute of Jilin as a painter, Hai Bo is one of a group of contemporary Chinese photographers living and working in Beijing and exploring themes of historical, cultural and social change. Unlike many of his contemporaries such as Song Dong and Zhang Huan, Hai Bo is now strictly a photographer, unusual as many artists work in other media such as painting and performance art in addition to photography.

In this four-part work made over the course of two years, the artist is seated under a magnificent tree in a park in Changchun, a city in northern China. The tree changes appearence through the seasons, but the figure remains constant, motionless, meditative. Here Hai Bo played as a child, and here his brother accidentally drowned. A palpable sense of loneliness and sorrow pervades the photographs in their forlorn palette, their record of time's passage, and their image of profound contemplation as the artist searches for meaning in nature at a spot marked by the spiritual presence of his lost brother.