The Real Toy Story

The next exhibition at John Batten Gallery is by Michael Wolf - who has lived in Hong Kong since 1995 and has regularly visited China over the last nine years. He is a freelance photographer and worked on assignment for various publications - in particular, as a photo-journalist for the German magazine, Stern. This is Michael's second exhibition at John Batten Gallery - in late 2003 his large-sized 'Portraits of Chinese People' photographs received critical acclaim.

'The Real Toy Story' is both an elaborate installation and a homage to China's factory workers who produce most of the world's cheap mass-produced plastic toys. Michael will completely cover the gallery's walls in a large installation of approximately 12,000 toys and imbedded amongst the installation will be photographs of the factory workers who produced them.

'The Real Toy Story' is a continuation of Michael Wolf's interest in the people and societal changes taking place in Southern China. Forthcoming new work includes: 'The Back Door' - photographs taken in Hong Kong's back alleys; 'Corner Buildings' - pre-1960s buildings of Kowloon; 'Architecture of Density' - depictions of Hong Kong's monolithic apartment buildings.