I always had an urge of a photo shot of two common but very poetic things in one frame. Beer and condom. And a few years ago I shot one, a beer bottle and a condom on a blank white sheet.
But recently I just decide to use my bed as a platform to retake the photo, the white stuff on the bed sheet is the toothpaste foam that I spill there for mimic of you know what it should be.
Beer and Condom says a lot thing about my feeling of social activity of my generation, especially me, that doesn't mean I get laid regularly, in reality, I'm conceptually a still virgin, if self-sanctification does not technically count as sex, but beer I do drown in it. Seeing my life floating in this foaming surge for years, pulled by the current as my surrounding guides, and the natural desire within me endlessly rolling, yet in this uncertain realm how can one ever get on the shore? It's much easier for one person to hold onto the empty beer barrel and drift, if another person somehow grabs it firmly, then they would probably sink to bottom together. (how lucky are they maybe) But alone still a Yes. so many sleepless nights, and every morning it's an one-man battle to get up.... I believe there are many people stuck in this world. So here, this concept picture I shot would probably speak to them and also inspire them maybe. (Oh, the wet mark on the bed sheet is the beer spill, I cut up a plastic bag and put under the sheet, and then spill some beer and toothpaste. So I don't sleep like a pig.)
Beer and Condom
by Laijon Liu 20111003
I don't know where my life gonna float,
I can't predict my fate and road,
For any hope of prospect I dare not to dream,
but at least I've got now, at least we've got now.
Don't worry about world or politics,
Don't plan for a house or electric cars,
Debt can never bind those simple joys,
Let's go out, pop a beer and condom.
For anyone who doesn't understand why I shot above photos in a setting of bed and stacks of books, I wrote a following ekphrastic poem to explain:
Billions of sperms, billions of seeds
all drown and swim in beer foam
there they should never be
Joy in the bottle, love misses its mark
on this bed of uncertainty
who would dare to dream?
books for wisdom, fool's paradise
just like the intoxicated world
only a sober eye sees
Chinese:
啤酒和避孕套
我不知道我会往哪儿漂流
我不能预测出命运和前路
对于未来的展望 我不敢去梦想
但是我拥有现在，我们却都有现在
别去为着世界和政治操心
别去为着房价和机车计划
债务永不能捆绑那些简单的乐趣
咱们出去，开瓶啤酒和避孕套
几亿个精子，几亿颗种子
都在啤酒泡中游弋，淹没
那儿它们不该去
瓶中的欢乐，爱错失准头
在这不确定的床上
有谁敢去梦想？
读书寻求智慧，幻想的天堂
就像这沉醉的世界
只被清醒的眼睛看透
