Weishan Yang

Weishan Yang’s work explores the connection between an external and internal landscape, drawing attention to the threshold between inside and outside. Her practice is led by an intuitive approach to making, often drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of horror fiction. Whilst the materials and the forms used in the work vary, along with the subject matter, her interest in the body (as form and mass) and its states of becoming is consistent.

Her recent body of work stems from an interest in the sentimental value of objects and the ways our desires are reified. With discursive references to visual culture, through a range of processes including digital drawing and sculpture making, Yang attempts to produce sculptural forms that appear to be both familiar and alien. This uncertainty opens a space for free association. She is drawn to forms that suggest potential functions and often borrow shapes and fragments from everyday objects. By adopting and recomposing these fragments Yang tries to create a fused object, always on the verge of transitioning into something else.

The materiality of the surface has been a recurring preoccupation. To her the surface is the precarious boundary that sits in between, it can be the skin or something beyond. 1980s analogue film effects have always held a fascination for Yang in terms of the tactility of materials. Inspired by those special effects, with a specific interest in the imperfections of the production, she tends to use materials like wax and clay to create a raw quality, giving space to dangerous possibilities.