Published by JRP|Ringier. Edited by Philippe Pirotte, Beatrix Ruf. Text by Colin Chinnery, Rey Chow, Philippe Pirotte, Beatrix Ruf, Ho Rui An.
The art of Yang Fudong (born 1971) reflects the ideals and anxieties of a generation born after China’s Cultural Revolution, struggling to find their place amid the country’s rapid transformation. His dreamlike films and film-installations feature long, suspended shots and multiple storylines. Yang calls his protagonists "intellectuals"--evoking ancient China’s literati-artists and intellectuals who avoided participation in worldly affairs. In other works Yang focuses on the sense of isolation and loss increasingly present in China’s contemporary society as communities are scattered, traditional rural villages dissolved, and the fight for survival takes precedence. In his most recent multichannel film installations, Yang shifts his attention toward a reflection on the process of filmmaking. The book, edited by Philippe Pirotte and Beatrix Ruf, includes a comprehensive selection of Yang Fudong’s photographic and film work, as well as essays by film scholar Rey Chow and artists and curators Ho Rui An, Philippe Pirette, Beatrix Ruf and Colin Chinnery.
Published by JRP|Ringier. Edited by Ziba de Weck. Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Though he trained as a painter at the China Academy of Fine Arts, Yang Fudong, one of the most interesting and influential young artists emerging from China today, has always preferred film. His videos and photographs combine and accumulate perspectives, investigating identity through ancient mythology, personal memory and lived experience. His subjects, often in their late 20s and early 30s, seem confused and appear to be hovering between the past and present, or perhaps China's past and present. That split gives them an expectant quality, as if something is going to happen that never quite does. Yang Fudong seeks, through vignettes, a poetics of place and people as an alternative to the politics of power. No Snow on the Broken Bridge includes in-depth coverage of the recent title piece and an overview of his oeuvre to date. Texts by Ziba de Weck and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge
Yang Fudong