Page 134 - Flaunt 171 - Summer of Our Discontent - St-John

Yang Bodu
Yang Bodu (b. 1986), lives and works in Beijing. Yang’s work is often described as an “art scene” that floats psychologically. Her practice renders contemporary art both stimulating and paradoxical, and transports viewers to an isolated environment where viewing an artwork is a private activity in an entirely pub- lic space. Yang received her BFA in 2008 from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, followed by her MFA from Pennsylvania Academy ofthe Fine Arts in 2012. In 2011, Yang was the recipient of the Justine Cretella Memorial Scholarship. In 2012, she won the Fel- lowship Trust Prize for her outstanding presentation in PAFA’s Annual Student Exhibition.
For her debut at X Museum, Yang exhibited work from
her “In the Museum” series, which has been endured by Yang for several years ever since 2011. This series of paintings create spaces within the frames, with carefully arranged settings and lightings, those seem to entice people’s consciousness to enter. Yang recognizes consciousness as an entity, thus she would gen- erate a space for it to stay. Although an image is a flat surface, Yang regards the two-dimensional image as a ‘formulated and constructed space, and maintains the exact photographic per- spectives. In ’terms of the subject matter, it revolutionized from firstly emphasizing interior works and details of the museum
to later focusing more on representing the general atmosphere, eventually keeping one unique spotlight only.
Alain Robbe-Grillet has elaborated in his book Topology of a Phantom City (Topologie d’une cité fantôme): “I” was there in the abandoned prison-like city, staring at the existing buildings and historical sites those remain with the reappearance of those people, who have become phantoms of the city.
How has the pandemic affected your artistic practice?
Although my life on the surface has not changed much, the impacts on my mind and mentality have been quite prominent. I can clearly sense the demarcation of the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic worlds. In the face of a disaster that gradually spreads and submerges all, my stress response is stretched
and lengthened because of it. This translates into the ‘instanta- neity’ of my creation: when working, I now spend less time on deliberation, and often go ahead with an idea without too much thinking. I also no longer isolate myself from the external world, since quarantine and lockdown paradoxically make me feel more connected to the world than before.
Do you have a set routine when creating artworks, or is your process randomized? Please describe either way?
I remember answering this question in 16 Personalities Test. They appear to be two distinctive approaches, but actually for me they are integrated into one. I work under a fully random, al- most intuitive condition in which my creation follows a routin- ised convention. In almost every single piece of my work there coexist both randomisation and routine, persistently co-present in the beginning, during the making and till the ending.
We’ve read that your artwork separates itself from the ‘art scene’. Do you feel that’s accurate? Is the ‘scene’ possible to escape? Is that a personal behavioral condition or is it more about your artistic output and subject matter?
We are all aware that the ‘art scene’ is a cage, aren’t we? It is where Statues Also Die (Les statues Meurent Aussi (1953)). It
is possible to escape the ‘scene’ on the plane of religiosity: it is leaving in the ‘heart’ a separation ‘here and now’. However, on the plane of reality where there is nowhere to escape to, I can only choose to stare, to look it in the eye. It is in this stare that it becomes the scene, rather than the art scene.
Would you agree there is a voyeuristic quality about your work that is different from other painters? Is painting fundamental- ly voyeuristic? Why or why not?
My painting does not originate from voyeurism, but I get what you mean. Audience may experience a voyeuristic quality, and this is because they cannot stand being directly exposed to the center of the scene hence subject to the stare (almost all of my paintings project the stare at the scene). Voyeurism is more of
a description of where the audience stand the security of that spot, which allows them to see all and in the meantime hide themselves in the dark—the peephole is ready made.
Painting in its essence is not voyeuristic. However, it can be seen with the voyeuristic gaze, projected from the peeping eye. I think it’s more accurate to say that we are voyeurs of the reality rather than of painting.
When do you feel the most confident?
When a painting is completed.
What’s next?
Know myself, know the world; hopefully I can bring benefits to more people.
1 The Heart Sutra states ‘form is empty, emptiness is form’. The scene is a form that is empty, a particular form of emptiness. To escape the ‘scene’ it is sufficient to come to the awareness that the scene is emptiness.1The Heart Sutra states ‘form is empty, emptiness is form’. 2The scene is a form that is empty, a particular form of emptiness. To escape the ‘scene’ it is sufficient to come to the awareness that the scene is emptiness.
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