“Split” is a photographic amalgamation of multiple antique negatives retrieved from family storages, markets, and library archives across China, carefully composed and birthed by the attentive psyche of Rose Tang. The Taiwanese artist transports two separate figures into a veneer of a family portrait between a father and daughter, veiling the reality that each person once lived in a separate era and place from the other. Serving as the poster work for the media release of Rose Tang’s first ever solo show, “Roseless”, in October 2010, the artwork “Split” shows the parent proudly behind the child, while cracks and creases weave over their images like the 1500 rivers of China stretching across the landscapes when seen from the air. In the careful replication of careless damage, these crevices of personalities, cracked values and passing social imagery of Chinese family culture are presented but not with dissection: the privacy of the family is broken, though not infiltrated. “Split” speaks of rifts in a family structure that endures nonetheless, even though the physical image is the preservation of something that never existed. [Pete Bradt]