楊福東: 断章取义
Sep 30 -Jan 3 2013, OCT Suhe Creek ShanghaiOCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT),Shanghai
OCAT Shanghai presented a retrospective of Yang Fudong’s works from the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The exhibition was not too large in scale (just one bigger hall separated by a wall in the middle), but it had a good selection of works from the past two decades. Photographs were complemented with one two-channel video projection (On the Double Dragon Hills, 2008) in a nicely designed black box, and a table-like display case which was showing an early movie (An Estranged Paradise, 1997/2002) on an iPad-size screen with headphones, accompanied by the original paper score of the film music. The latter would be probably my only objection to the show, because the setting does not really allow enjoying the movie for a longer time than a few minutes.
Yang Fudong’s work is intriguing in the way how fiction and reality merge. In ‘On the Double Dragon Hills’, I believe that he was shooting on an existing location, without any changes to the landscape. It is an almost documentary approach. But the selection of location and framing makes a person think of much more than the actual place and the images become strongly metaphorical. The main body of Yang Fudong’s work – whether photograph series or moving image projects – does indeed consist of staged ‘artistic’ productions. But it feels very close to a film-like reality. The photographs evoke stories, referencing both ‘Chineseness’ as well as universal situations and emotions. The ability of balancing between those two really makes this artist stand out.
This was a well-rounded exhibition. Given that Yang Fudong is based in Shanghai, he was probably involved closely enough to make sure all goes well, and it did: A clean and neat installation coupled with a good selection of artworks. Overall, this exhibition was a good introduction to Yang Fudong’s works for those who don’t know him and a nice revisiting of his past work for those who do.