The 21th Artist-in-Residence Solo Exhibition| Yi Lian:Folding
The 21st Artist-in-Residence
Yi Lian Solo Exhibition: Folding
Curator: Li Shengzhao
Duration：2021.04.14-05.20
Venue: TC101 SPACE, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
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Preface
Role and Clone
A transparent sphere, on the lake.
Chilean artist Javier, who bears a resemblance to Jesus, was invited to present the “Galaxy Stand-up Show” in a transparent sphere floating on the lake. Javier improvised his speech based on the given keywords (“travel”, “Moon”, “planet”, “water”, “drift”, etc.). With his words continuing popping out, the air in the sphere was slowly transformed into carbon dioxide and mist, which also twined the speaker little by little.
The Galaxy Stand-up Show
Video installation
One-screen color HD video with sound (10’45”), a transparent PVC sphere（200cmφ）, and printed texts
Dimension variable
2019
Snow mountain, Hokkaido.
Umi, the manager of the resident institution S-AIR, was invited to talk about his work experience while pushing the ever-growing snowball to the top of the mountain, which was like Sisyphus pushing the huge stone in ancient Greek Mythology. (<Myth Practice>)
Myth Practice
Video installation
Single screen video, colored, with sound, 4K, 10’36”
Dimension variable
2019
The 10 recruited volunteers were invited to complete the same task under certain requirements. They would fulfill and narrate the task - “The Scenery I Saw”, based on different knowledge, life background, life experience, and approaches.
The above invitation was sent from the artist Yi Lian. These volunteers were sometimes the “roles” in the work, and sometimes were like the “clones” of the artist.
They, also the “others” in the work, are not only common others, but also others from religions and myths, others epitomizing a number of identities from one person, and “Other” (as described by Jacques Lacan) differentiated from “speaking I” and “spoken I” separated by language.
In the conversation with Yi Lian on creation, he repeatedly mentioned the importance of “communication” and “others”: “others” includes all human beings, beings and things different from the self. He longed to understand the living state, information, idea and experience of “others” except the self.
The artist acts like a weaver, taking a wisp of the thread and handing it to these different subjects — the “others”; and “others” will weave the wisp into their own warp and regenerate back. A brand-new “image” which is different from the self and the “others” is hoped to be produced through this repeated process of communication and folding.
Blanks-Filling and Folding
The "Other" is always a tough blank to fill in.
Yi Lian named several artist-in-residence projects he participated in as “blank-filler”, and “blank” is interpreted as “a hole between heaven and earth” in Annotation of Explaining Article and Interpreting Words. Hence, human beings and everything on earth may all be regarded as “blank-filler”. Complicated, incomplete, and hard-to-reach communication exists among all things, others, and self. Art has become a possible path here because it can apply a unique way to transfer and link information between people, people and things, and facilitate its spread like ripples.
The Big Empty Mountain and The Small Empty Mountain
Video installation
Dual screen videos, colored, with sound, two-minutes cycle
Dimension variable
2018-2021
Folding is an action or operation, which is a way to reshape the relationship, to obtain transcendental connection and communication, to form a new perspective and dialogue, and to develop multiple internal and external relationships.
The seemingly binary and opposite things, such as the natural objects and artificial copies in Two Nose Rings; the abstract country, border, internal and external concepts and overlapping planar images inInvisible Scenery; the relationship between the light and the subject, between you and me in Length of Light; the up and down, reality and imagination in Burning; and the juxtaposed objects of the same type in The Big Empty Mountain and The Small Empty Mountain are all displaced from their previous seemingly stable positions and concepts. These possibilities and complexities are exponentially superimposed with endless exchanges through continuous folding.
The Invisible Landscape
Collection-level giclée printing, manual drawing
120cmx61cm×4
2018-2021
Folding and blanks-filling are the responses to emptiness, like creating a path and space, and constructing a bridge over the abyss. There is a Zen saying: “Stand high on a mountain, and walk deep under the sea”. Perhaps, only through such an extreme dimension of knowledge and action can we grasp the changes of things, thus up to the philosophy.
About the Artist
Yi Lian
Yi Lian was born in Yichun, Jiangxi Province in 1987, completed his master degree from School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art in 2012 and now lives and works in Hangzhou.
Yi Lian’s works include images, art installations, photography, painting and so on. His works are often based on individual life experiences rather than purely abstract concepts or forms. His early works focus on the narrative of images, the construction of surreal scenes and the capture of absurdity in personal experience. In recent years, the key words of his works turn to ‘the other’, ‘communication’ and so on. Becoming aware of the complexity, impossibility and multiple layers of ‘communication’ with the other, the artist tries to obtain a path through art to connect with, understand and experience the other (person/object/life), and also to touch and know oneself once again. “Art is glamorous because of its ability to share information with the other and relate to more.”
Solo Exhibition
2018 - “Yi Lian: Cinema Paradiso”, Bonacon Gallery, Guangzhou
2016 - “The Desolate Timeline”: Yi Lian Solo Exhibition, Telescope Art Space, Beijing
2015 - “DEMIBEAST”: YI Lian Solo Exhibition, Inna Art Space, Hangzhou
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020 -
“Shanghai Salon”Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition, Bao Collection, Lane 396 South Urumqi Road Space, Shanghai.
“Whisper of the Frozen River, A Breath in the Mist And Blowing out the Candle With Gazes”, Inna Art Space, Hangzhou.
“One Tree, Fifty Ideas”, public Art project, OoEli, Hangzhou.
2019 -
Points International Residency Project II : Leading a Life of Idle Pleasure, Points Center for Contemporary Art, Jinxi, Jiangsu.
“A Glass Without Water”, Inna Art Space, Hangzhou.
“The Students of Zhang Peili and Geng Jianyi”, West Bund Art Center, Shanghai.
2019 Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival. Xiamen.
“Blank-Filler”, the Exhibition of S-Air Residency project, S-Air Exhibition Space, Sapporo, Japan.
About the Curator
Li Shengzhao
Curator, Writer, Researcher of Open Matter Institute.
Li Shengzhao graduated from the Institute of Contemporary Art and Social Thoughts, China Academy of Art (ICAST). She focuses on case of artists in depth. Through curatorial practice, theoretical research and writing, she is committed to thinking about the significance of "anti-establishment" and proposing possibilities of art-life.
