Shanghai Scenery, a project that began in 2020, takes a look at the massive building expansion brought about by Shanghai’s rapid urbanization as a new landscape in China’s current urban development, in order to explore the impact that the development of urban public space has on the environment as well as on individuals.

From outdoor architecture to indoor self-portraits, the author continuously connects himself with the urban public space, appearing in the public space of demolished houses and construction sites in the city in the form of performance. 

Leslie Shang Zhefeng continues to explore the current state of China’s urban architectural space, social issues, environment and population movement, and records the new landscape of China under the times.

The wasteland, as well as the buildings to be demolished or under construction, involve the inner and outer middle ring of Shanghai. At the same time, it is still recording the man-made scenery of Shanghai and the young people who are migrant workers. For Leslie, the identity problem of migrant workers also exists. Regarding how to define the identities of ordinary foreign individuals in big cities in China, at the end of 2020, he began to integrate his body into buildings with different attributes, and have a relationship with the architectural space through selfies, and have the concepts of temporary rooms and temporary identities. It enabled him to explore the relationship between people and architecture and the environment more deeply.

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