Yang Fudong
Yang Fudong | China b.1971 | City light (Chengshi zhiguang) 2000 | Mini DV transferred to DVD: 6:40 minutes, colour, stereo, ed. 3/10 | The James C Sourris Collection. Purchased 2003 with funds from James C Sourris through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
b.1971 China
Lives and works in Shanghai
Yang Fudong is celebrated for the poetry of his moving-image works. His visual language draws from and pays tribute to Chinese literature, literati painting and folklore as well as pre- and post-Revolutionary film history.
Filmed in Shanghai a decade ago City light (Chengshi zhiguang) 2000 explores the rituals, rhythms and vicissitudes of contemporary life in a sprawling metropolis. Two actors are used to represent one office worker experiencing a rift between his public and private personas. Commenting on the relationship between memory, emotion and place, this short video also uses deadpan humour to capture a cyclical state of waking and sleeping, alienation and longing in urban life. The work’s title evokes a sense of possibility and playfulness in anonymous interactions, taking place in a city undergoing changes as rapid as they are profound.
Exhibitions (solo): ‘Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest and Other Stories’, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece, 2010; ‘Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest’, Asia Society and Museum, New York, United States, 2009; ‘No snow on the broken bridge’, Parasol Unit, London, England, 2006; ‘New generations: Yang Fudong’, Museo d´arte contemporanea Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy, 2005; ‘Five Films’, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, United States, 2004. Exhibitions (group): ‘China Power Station-Part III, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin, Italy, 2010; ‘The Beauty of Distance’, 17th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 2010; ‘Rehearsal’, 8th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China, 2010; ‘Moving Perspectives’, Arthur Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC, United States, 2009; ‘The China Project’, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2009; ‘5th Seoul International Media Art Biennale’, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea, 2008; ‘Farewell to Post-Colonialism: the 3rd Guangzhou Triennale, Guangzhou, China, 2008; ‘Thermocline: New Asian Waves’, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2007; 52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2007; 1st Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia, 2005; 8th Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2005; Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany, 2002.
