Pace Gallery will host one of China’s most important contemporary artists, Yin Xiuzhen, for her latest solo exhibition “Yin Xiuzhen: Everywhere” at their Hong Kong space. Yin Xiuzhen previously held her first major museum exhibition in Hong Kong titled “Yin Xiuzhen: Sky Patch” at CHAT in 2020, and published an artist monograph of the same name. Returning to Hong Kong after two years, the artist will present her new series of works titled “Chronicles of the Floating World,” as well as several series of works created over the past decade. These works showcase Yin Xiuzhen’s ongoing exploration of transformative materials, with the majority of them making their debut in Hong Kong!
Yin Xiuzhen’s focus on reality has always revolved around the human condition, and she visually presents the individual experiences of contemporary society through her sensitive and keen creative intuition. The new series of works exhibited this time, “Canglang Journal,” once again selects porcelain as the main material and pushes the relationship between the artist and clay to a more physical level. Through strong or gentle pushing and squeezing with the hands, the artist leaves folds and ripples on the surface of the heavy porcelain slab, resembling the texture of the human body.
©尹秀珍，圖片由佩斯 畫廊提供
The title of the work hints at its relationship with the literary tradition of “borrowing scenery to express thoughts” in ancient Chinese literati; at the same time, on a visual level, when the porcelain clay rolls up layers of “waves”, it also brings to mind the imagery symbolizing the tides of life and inner calling in Virginia Woolf’s works; they are both narrated and free, generated. The artist’s iconic clothing fragments emerge from the gaps in the waves, these clothes, worn by different individuals, undergo changes over a longer span of time, faithfully recording the life experiences of the clothing owners on the surface of the fibers, referencing the porcelain, and leading the viewers into contemplation of the conditions of life.
The other series of works exhibited this time, “Ripples,” made its debut at the Jinan Biennale in 2020. The artist incorporates items that are undergoing growth and change, such as fruits and bonsai, into the art installation, allowing the work to exist in a temporary state. These materials with a limited lifespan have been frequently used in Yoon Soo-jin’s art installations since the 1990s, causing the works to gradually transform during the exhibition period.
©尹秀珍，圖片由佩斯 畫廊提供
And this new work differs from the previous use of materials in that it emphasizes the experience and feelings of a person facing something that changes. Just as the title “Ripple” suggests: every circular water ripple on the water surface records the occurrence of an encounter, but at the same time it also conceals more narratives beneath the water surface. Here, through a temporary dependency relationship, the artist hopes to establish a more continuous and organic relationship between the work and the viewer.
In the past two to three years, Yin Xiuzhen has incorporated a more macroscopic dimension into her continuous care for life, hoping to explore more unknown things with the power of artistic spirit, and bring the transient and impermanent, concrete human individuals into a broader world. In 2012, Yin Xiuzhen named her solo exhibition “Nowhere to Land,” pointing to the artist’s state of existence and creation at that time, and also making a footnote for that rapidly developing yet anxious and confused era.
In 10 years, her latest solo exhibition “Everywhere” attempts to present a more resilient form of life – just as the constantly changing and generating energy contained in the materials she chooses reveals to us – to resist the more hidden and widespread violence and difficulties faced by humanity at present.
“Yoon Soo-jin: Everywhere”
Date: November 25, 2022, to January 5, 2023
Time: 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Location: 12th Floor, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
Image source and learn more: Pace Gallery
