Yiyang Chen
My practice mainly focuses on feminism, gaze, body image, the relationship between virtuality and reality through various medium. Based on the comparison analysis of patriarchy between the Western and Asian social contexts. Fandom(appropriation), archive, collage, painting, ceramics are employed as my methodologies. When it comes to the notion of “body” within my practice, it is not only talking about women’s physical body, but also women’s body in the background of Asian political systems.
I Am A Little Teapot
Oil on linen, 2022
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404 Fantasy
“404 Fantasy” (2022), which is developed from my exploration on making collages. I imitated the effect of tearing up the edge of collages on canvas by doing brushstrokes. Meanwhile, negative space is deemed as a common place within both the Eastern and Western art. I left space in both my paintings and collages. In addition, the painting is empowered to carry conflicting meanings. It presents a woman with double braids, wearing an Qing dragon robe(which was worn by the male, especially the emperors of China, symbolizing the highest power in ancient patriarchy). At the same time, there is a female torso in a destroyed kimono. A bento box (ceramic) with the shadow of a table was place below the painting, associated with the red table in the painting.
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The Maid, The Bride, The Body
“The Maid, The Bride, The body” (2022), the hoop skirt could be regarded as the most important symbol within my practice, originated in collages, then pushed my practice forward to paintings and small scale ceramics. I exploited the hoop skirt as a blank paper to make collages. I questioned myself whether I could employ cyberspace as a new environment to express my concepts on women’s body and gaze. This was done though an online performance with the hoop skirt. This performance was inspired by Laura Mulvey’s film theory. This theory gave me the insight to explore how the Eastern women’s body would be reshaped by the digital filter and techniques within cyberspace. By projecting the keyword “gaze” into a specific context, to investigate the new cultural meanings of “ gaze” and “filter” in the context of social media.
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As If I Am Invisible
“As If I Am Invisible” (2022), which focuses on the relationship between historical objects, knits and the objectification of women’s body. The painting is created from an Asian woman’s perspective, associated with the psychological background of fetish. I intend to build up a connection between the Western and Eastern patriarchy, by imaging if I could abstractly treat Asian women’s body as fragile vessels, wrapped and oppressed by a huge net, a wide sweater or an exquisitely cardigan.
