For a half century now Kashgar, an oasis city in the extreme west of China, has had to endure aggressive Chinese colonisation. The population, overwhelmingly Islamic Uigurs, have had to look on as the old centre of the city was demolished and modernised. With that cultural artefacts disappeared that linked them with their history, when Kashgar was an important trading centre on the silk route. At the same time subsidies and tax advantages have encouraged Han Chinese to move to Chinas western provinces. These, and other pressures, have created an explosive situation in Kashgar.

Asia has also entered the era of extravagant consumption. There too shopping has become an important leisure time activity. Developments in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai are a symbol of this process. Roux (b. 1961) photographed in the city's subway, which increasingly has been taken over by advertising, billboards and other expressions of the advancing cult of consumption. Her photographs give an impression of this invasion of public space and the human spirit. Underscapes is presented in the form of an interactive installation that enables the viewer to travel along with the subway passengers.

For several years now Edith Roux has been photographing the increasing uniformity of the periphery of large cities in the European Union. Everywhere the same business estates, similar office complexes and uniform shopping malls are rising, invariably bordered by the same undeveloped terrain. In order to emphasize the uniformity of her subjects, Roux always selects the same camera angle and with the aid of a computer she colours all the skies in her photographs an identical blue. Although these business estates are reachable only by auto, she keeps the access roads deliberately out of the picture. The results are almost abstract images, in which the modern developed environment is stripped of any individuality.