Yang Fudong
dal 11/9/2011 al 5/11/2011
Segnalato da
11/9/2011
Yang Fudong
Parasol Unit, London
One half of August. The exhibition presents three new works of the renowned artist and filmmaker Yang Fudong, one of the most important artists yet to emerge in contemporary China: Fifth Night, 2010; One half of August, 2011; Ye Jiang (The night man cometh), 2011. As in most of Fudong's works, all is left open-ended, with no beginning or end. Without conclusion, the search for spiritual life continues.
After the resounding success of his first solo exhibition at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art in 2006,
the foundation has dedicated a second major solo show to the renowned artist and filmmaker Yang Fudong, one
of the most important artists yet to emerge in contemporary China. It presents three new works: Fifth Night,
2010; One half of August, 2011; Ye Jiang (The night man cometh), 2011.
Fifth Night, a video-installation composed of seven synchronized projections, is shot supposedly in the streets
of Shanghai's old town at night, revealing some commotion in which carriages, rickshaws and vintage cars are
driven. A stage has been built and a tramcar is being frantically repaired. Unrelated characters perform their
own activities, some engaged, others bored as if awaiting some event, all lack any interest in or compassion for
one another. Yang Fudong uses 35-mm cameras to film the same scenes from different angles, with variations
of scale and depth of field. This highlights a character's simplest action or subtle expression so that what a
viewer might perceive as separate instances are actually all part of a single scene. As in most of Yang
Fudong's works, all is left open-ended, with no beginning or end. Without conclusion, the search for spiritual
life continues.
One half of August is an eight-screen, black-and-white, HD video installation, for which Yang Fudong projects
scenes from earlier works (particularly from Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest) onto architectural
elements, props, structures and objects built for the purpose. He also includes artefacts, uses light, and
inverts external space. This creates new realities that challenge one’s vision and mind, and expands our
understanding of the world. This first derivative of Yang Fudong films, almost an attempt at three-
dimensionality, poses the question: Am I watching a film or a film of a film? Issues of the subconscious,
reality and dream are also clearly present. The title One half of August refers to the Chinese Mid-Autumn
Festival, which is about rites, tradition, art, poetry, everything that puts human beings to the fore. Usually
starting on the 15th of the eighth Chinese lunar month, in 2011 the festival began on 12 September, the
launch date of Yang Fudong’s exhibition at Parasol unit. Yang Fudong highlights with his beautiful title a fine
collaboration with Parasol unit and his second exhibition at the foundation.
The single-screen work, Ye Jiang (The night man cometh) unfolds in a frozen winter landscape. At first one
might try to read the film as a linear narrative, but as images succeed one another it becomes clear that
Yang Fudong is once more questioning the destiny of man. In it a wounded and forlorn warrior is seen after a
battle, apparently now questioning his path in life. In this dramatic and hyper-realist film, three ghost-like
characters appear to personify the chaos of feelings and thoughts that surface and clash within the warrior’s
heart and mind as he swings from enthusiasm and happiness to disappointment, grief and despair, thus
revealing what takes place in a man who is required to demonstrate strength and courage in times of war
and crisis.
Born in 1971 in Beijing, Yang Fudong now lives and works in Shanghai. Among his recent exhibitions are the
Marion Goodman Gallery, Paris, France, 2011, and Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia,
2011. Other solo exhibitions include the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece, 2010; Hara
Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2009; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, USA, 2009; MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium,
2009; Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China, 2009.
Image: Fifth Night, 2010, HD video Installation, 7 screens, black-and-white, sound, 10’ 37”
For more information, please contact Anna Lehmbruck on 020 7490 7373 or at anna@parasol-unit.org
Preview 12 September, 6:30-9 pm
Parasol unit
foundation for contemporary art 14 Wharf Road London N1 7RW
Gallery opening hours:
Monday by prior arrangement. Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Sunday, 12–5 p.m.
Extended opening hours during FRIEZE week:
Monday 10 October, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday 15 October, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.
Admission Free
Directions
Tube: Old Street and Angel
Buses: 43, 205 and 214 via City Road