by Vincent Meyers
In the LHUCA’s main hall, the photographic exhibition “Almost Home” by Jiawei Gong consists of two groups of monolithic photographs printed on canvas and presented as unrolled scrolls. Each group is a number of vertical-format photographs taken from a single vantage point (a cotton field and a large city park, respectively). Each image reproduces the view of a different direction, though with no apparent order (as in a panorama). The works, taken individually or as a group appear with such imposing presence (think Mark Rothko) and concern such pedestrian scenes that you are forced either to abandon viewing them or contemplate their whispered meaning. A perception of a place almost but not quite home sets you on a precipice of the unutterable bigness of the world, just before that bigness collapses and you enter the small familiarity of home. They depict the perceived enormity of your surroundings before recognition shrinks them down to home-scale. The poetic contrast here is well worth the effort.