Yuyang Pang

I am interested in the mundane, the everyday life, and my recent works are inspired by ideas such as reproduction, use, and exhibition values. Since Dadaism, Pop art and appropriation in art, the lines between artwork and ordinary object have been blurred. My work is grounded in the choice of materials so that this distinction is made, or not, allowing the objects I make to relate to society in a dysfunctional way. I create dysfunctional objects, so that the work tries to free itself from its initial meaning and function, and becomes more abstract.

 

This is not to say that the objects don’t exist, on the contrary, I place a lot of care and value in crafting all components of my installations. Influenced by Marxism and other writers such as Walter Benjamin and Boris Groys, I make use of what we can broadly consider common language. This common language also interests me in story telling. I use a range of techniques and media: from Styrofoam, to wood or metal, from animation, to printmaking and painting, I am drawn to anything and everything that captures my attention. It can be a sudden start, but it allows me to engage in craftsmanship, which in turn, allows my own aesthetic to come to life. The more time I spend making the objects, the more art is imbued in the objects I make. Whereas the work I make needs to be tangible and recognizable, their lack of function gives them a certain ambiguity, and it’s in this intersection of art and art making that I am most interested.