Zhongyu Yuan looks closely at the space between the individual and the surrounding world. Yuan believes that self consciousness is the key factor separating one’s self and others, and is reinforced by the structure of today’s society. In answer to the spectacle of this era overwhelmed by modernization, Yuan relates minimalism to zen culture, endeavor to recover the echo of nature, and survive in this isolated social environment. Regarding human society and civilization as a boundary between individuals and the world, Yuan’s art practice becomes a method to maintain the fragile connection between people and life. Yuan makes multimedia installations with simple colors and a range of scales. Generally site-specific, these works occupy the space with film-like visual language including light and tone to emphasize the atmosphere of the unfamiliar. Artificial materials are integrated with geometric shapes and grids to complicate original understanding, and create both surreal and uncanny scenes. Yuan’s installations include multiple parts unifying to shape a series of confusing monuments. Underscoring the idea that experience is the most significant according to existentialism, Yuan begin works with concepts, while focusing more on perceptual experience and treat art as the playground – to escape from daily life for both artists and audiences. Yuan takes art as a way to abandon efficiency, bring the dream to reality, and return the artificial world to the aesthetics of nature through making absurd stages and monuments. By simulating the natural landscape, Yuan’s raise this topic of isolated consciousness, wandering in an indifferent world, and becoming the multitude through shared frustration.

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Curator
Kevin B. Chen

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