Yang Fudong — The Coloured Sky: New Women II — Marian Goodman Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: April 18 → May 30, 2015

Marian Goodman Gallery Paris is pleased to announce the fourth exhibition of works by Yang Fudong showcasing The Coloured Sky : New Women II, a multi-screen video installation along with two new series of photographs.

Following New Women (2013), a black-and-white film depicting women inspired by the aesthetic of Chinese cinema of the 1930s, The Coloured Sky : New Women II moves away from the mood of the first opus by presenting a colorful environment evoking childhood. Five women in beachwear move within a purposely artificial mirage-like waterfront. Both playfully naive and seductive they greet us in their secret garden suspended somewhere between dreams and reality. The artist has engaged new means to develop his narrative by experimenting with the use of transluscent color panes. Like most of Yang Fudong’s preceding films, the work is devoid of any plot, conveying mainly an atmosphere, a feeling, an impression — like an abstract painting. The Coloured Sky : New Women II was commissionned by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

Alongside the photographs from the film New Women II, the gallery presents a series of black-and-white photographs entitled The Light That I Feel. The series refers to an eponymous film shot during the summer 2014 on the island of Sandhornøy in Norway where Yang Fudong directed local actors and dancers. The Light That I Feel was first shown in situ on eight screens arranged within an architectural structure purposely built for the occasion on a beach on the island. Influenced by Ingmar Bergman’s work, this project enabled Yang Fudong to direct European actors for the first time in a magnificent Scandinavian landscape. The artist seeks to show how the wind and trees can express a narrative. As in many of his films landscapes play a paramount role equivalent to that of the protagonists.

Since the late 1990s Yang Fudong has developed a body of work composed of videos, films, video installations and photographs. Among his most acclaimed works are An Estranged Paradise (1997-2002) his first film, the series of five black-andwhite 35 mm films Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (2003-2007) and The Fifth Night a film projected on eight screens. Yang Fudong favours multi-screen projections allowing him to create works that surround the viewer who in turn becomes like a second film director. Yang’s visual language has always been enveloped in a dream-like mystery. His characters, deliberately silent and disembodied, usually move according to choreographed gestures and manage to transport the viewer into an aesthetically perfect environment. Halfway between film and photography his work plays, suspends and confuses time. “It’s a feeling of yesterday but it’s actually tomorrow”.

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Yang Fudong was born in Beijing in 1971. He is considered one of China’s most important contemporary artists. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou. Yang Fudong now lives and works in Shanghai. His work has been exhibited in China through the most important avant-garde exhibitions in the late 1990s and has been consequently shown in many countries including solo presentations in major institutions such as Parasol Unit, London (2011); National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2010); Asia Society, New York (2009); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2005); Castello di Rivoli, Torino (2005); Renaissance Society, Chicago (2004). Yang Fudong has participated in prestigious international art events including: Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2013); Venice Biennale, Italy (2003 and 2007); The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Australia (2006); Documenta XI, Germany (2002). In 2013, Kunsthalle Zurich and Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive co-organized his first retrospective exhibition.

Filmscapes, his latest exhibition at ACMI, Melbourne (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) will travel to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki and will be on view from September 19th, 2015 to January 31st, 2016.