【OCAT Shanghai｜About Works】Dalian Mirage by Yang Yuanyuan

Dalian Mirage: Sketches of Chapter 1-3 (2017-ongoing)

Yang Yuanyuan

Inkjet prints, various archives, inkjet printed wallpaper, Size variable

Courtesy the artist and Ningbo China port museum

Dalian Mirage (Chapter 1-3) (2017-ongoing) 

Yang Yuanyuan + Zhao Cong

Performance, 40'00''

Courtesy the artist

With Dalian’s history as its background, Dalian Mirage is presented in the varied forms of an artist book and an exhibition. Interweaving image and text into a “theatre play” set in the city, each chapter of the“6-act play” references a distinct urban space, including harbor, staircase, square, hotel, street and theatre. The narrative is a mixture of fictional and factual materials, where voices of various figures from different eras——a Japanese writer who was born in Dalian, a Japanese traveler and a Chinese worker from Shandong Province during the time of Japanese rule; a Japanese orphan after the time of liberation; a local Dalianer who currently lives on the old street and a Chinese person travels in Dalian with an old map——echo throughout. The project aims to explore a wide range of issues: the complexity of colonial history, the truths and fabrications in how history is written, and evolving functions and attributions of urban spaces across time. By answering these questions, the project blurs the spatio-temporal boundaries of the city. Among the fragmented monologues of various “foreigners”, there is an unfathomable question that echoes throughout a hundred year – “What is ‘home’? ”

About Artist

Yang Yuanyuan was born in 1989 in Beijing. She currently lives and works in Beijing. She received a BA (hons) in photography at London College of Communications, University of the Arts London in 2013. By experimenting with different ways of visual storytelling, Yang creates narratives where facts and fiction coexist and speak about topics such as memory and history. Yang's practice involves various mediums: mainly photography but also text, video and performance. 

 In 2017 Yang received the fellowship from Asia Cultural Council. Yang was shortlisted for the Huayu Youth Award in 2016. In 2015 she was shortlisted for Author Book Award at Rencontres d'Arles and Best Photobook of 2015 at Fototbookfestival in Kassel. She received the Tierney Fellowship at Three Shadows Photography Award in 2012. 

Selected solo exhibitions:

At the Place of Crossed Sights, C-Space, Beijing, 2016; 

In-between Places, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing, 2012. 

She participated Anren Biennale (2017) and Guangzhou Image Triennial (2017). Her works have been the subject of exhibitions at Guangzhou Times Museum, Guangzhou (2017); Yang Art Museum, Beijing (2017); Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna (2016)；Benaki Museum, Athens (2015);  Objectifs, Singapore (2015); Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo (EAC), Montevideo (2015) and Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing (2012).