Untact
YANG Xinguang
1980 China
〈Wilderness〉, 2020.
Nine-channel video installation, color, sound, weeds, leaves, Thermoplastic polyurethanes, stones, digital photo frame
Dimension variable
Commissioned by Asia Culture Center
Courtesy of the artist
Yang Xinguang is adept at incorporating natural materials such as grass, wood, soil and stone in his work as medium—materials that are routinely endowed with an aura closely linked to the Chinese literati tradition. But Yang does not directly employ these exalted elements to invoke the notion of tradition or to immerse in it; on the contrary, Yang plays a contemporary role and alienates this tradition which has come to signify a standard body of sentiments, a parallel process for him to reconstruct the relation between the self and the world. He won the 2010 Chinese Contemporary Art Golden Palm and the Nomination Award in Wu Zuoren Art Awards. In 2011, Yang was nominated for the Signature Art Prize and his work was showcased in the eponymous exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum. Yang was nominated for HUGO BOSS Asia Prize 2015, “Young Artist of the Year” by the Award of Art China (AAC), and the 2nd Huayu Youth Award in the same year.
Wilderness
The nine videos in the work describe a man’s complex emotions and thoughts in the wild natural environment on the outskirts of the city, sometimes joking, sometimes criticizing, and sometimes gloomy and sentimental. Through a series of metaphorical behaviors in nature, it reflects the complex and contradictory “human jungle” outside the nature, reflects on the existence of human beings, and probes into the relationship between human beings and society in non-contact culture.
In the exhibition, people can lie on a huge and soft cushion made with weeds and watch the video from the electronic screens that are mixed with the surrounding rocks. It is like human beings returning to their infancy nestling in the arms of a warm but actually disappearing natural mother, looking for and thinking about the channel with which they can build a connection with the world.
Haru.K
〈Edited Scape (The Lunchbox of Mr. H) 1 and 2〉, 2020 .
YANG Xinguang
〈Wilderness〉, 2020.
b-cone
〈44x60x24cm〉, 2020.
MIAO Ying
〈Pilgrimage into Walden Twelve–The Honor of Shepherds〉, 2019-2020 .
ZHANG XU Zhan
〈Mirror Series–Gwangju Mouse: You Never Loved Me Even in The Absence of the Pandemic. Pigeon: Do You Miss the Air of Freedom as Much as I Do? Gecko: Can't You Just Take It Anymore?,〉, 2017-2020 .
〈Animal Story–AT5〉, 2020.
Tsubasa KATO
〈Superstring Secret〉, 2020.
LU Yang
〈The Great Adventure of Material World〉, 2019.
〈Cyber Altar〉, 2017.