Aishan Yu
01 Nov - 21 Dec 2013
AISHAN YU
1 November – 21 December 2013
MOTINTERNATIONAL Brussels is delighted to present Aishan Yu’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. The artist will present recent drawings from her ongoing series ‘Others’.
Yu re-interprets historical documentary photographs, such as the works of the German photographer Hedda Morrison, who travelled extensively throughout China in the early 20th century. Her methodical drawing process becomes a way to take possession of these interwoven histories, technologies and traditions, creating a form that is her own. The artist’s drawings are executed with incredible detail and precision, and through this method she works to overcome the distance of the ‘other’; to bring about a moment of intimacy, even reciprocity. The act of copying becomes a form of immersion, even as the anonymity and ambiguity of the title is upheld.
In images such as Others 18, the artist’s meticulous, photorealistic transcription of the original (Henry Arthur Herbert’s Interior, ca. 1865 in 'The Golden Age of Photography') is disrupted by smudged pencil smears, revealing the artist’s hand. Placing importance on temporality, Yu disrupts any sense of nostalgia with marks of the present; spots of paint and lines of ink juxtapose the quick hand with the slow.
Aishan Yu was born in 1981 in Chongqing, China. She lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions include Dog Days I, MOTINTERNATIONAL, London (2013); Setsuko Hara, Oriel Sycharth, Wrexham (2013); ZARDOZ, MOT Projects, London (2012); Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London (2012); Islets of Langerhans, Hosted In Athens, Athens (2012); Living Room Cinema, London (2011).
1 November – 21 December 2013
MOTINTERNATIONAL Brussels is delighted to present Aishan Yu’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. The artist will present recent drawings from her ongoing series ‘Others’.
Yu re-interprets historical documentary photographs, such as the works of the German photographer Hedda Morrison, who travelled extensively throughout China in the early 20th century. Her methodical drawing process becomes a way to take possession of these interwoven histories, technologies and traditions, creating a form that is her own. The artist’s drawings are executed with incredible detail and precision, and through this method she works to overcome the distance of the ‘other’; to bring about a moment of intimacy, even reciprocity. The act of copying becomes a form of immersion, even as the anonymity and ambiguity of the title is upheld.
In images such as Others 18, the artist’s meticulous, photorealistic transcription of the original (Henry Arthur Herbert’s Interior, ca. 1865 in 'The Golden Age of Photography') is disrupted by smudged pencil smears, revealing the artist’s hand. Placing importance on temporality, Yu disrupts any sense of nostalgia with marks of the present; spots of paint and lines of ink juxtapose the quick hand with the slow.
Aishan Yu was born in 1981 in Chongqing, China. She lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions include Dog Days I, MOTINTERNATIONAL, London (2013); Setsuko Hara, Oriel Sycharth, Wrexham (2013); ZARDOZ, MOT Projects, London (2012); Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London (2012); Islets of Langerhans, Hosted In Athens, Athens (2012); Living Room Cinema, London (2011).