RIDER
 

In the context of iconography and visual culture studies, the image of the horse has long been closely associated with political symbolism, heroic narrative, and cultural migration. The Rider series by Luan Xiaochen constructs a visual motif that transcends personal narrative through the posture of riding. Rather than continuing the Western art historical tradition of depicting the "knight" as a heroic subject, Luan deliberately subverts this trope through non-frontal compositions—such as rear views and distant perspectives—which diminish the prominence of the individual subject and instead emphasize riding as a symbol of cultural practice and historical movement. In these works, the horse becomes a central medium of a temporally bearing structure. Its motion does not point to specific historical events but rather evokes a state of migration or shifting identity. Moreover, the spatial symbols cited in the background—such as landmark architecture from Qingdao—embed the equestrian imagery within a specific geographic context of East-West cultural exchange, expanding the semantic field of the horse to encompass themes of power, colonialism, and identity. As a visual rearticulation of equestrian imagery in art history, the Rider series not only dialogues with symbolic traditions within the image repertoire but also employs the motif of the “back view” as a critical intervention into the historical modes of seeing.