Details of a Sunset

In the exhibition Details of a Sunset at the Patriothall Gallery, Yu Yang explores the politics of bodies and spaces from the perspectives of both inclusion and exclusion. He deals with the ways in which people create spaces around themselves for protection and the impact of being touched by the unknown. Yu Yang demonstrates an interest in making connections between literature and visual art, showcasing his unique artistic vision. Gallery 1 features He Had no reason not to Shake Roland's Hand, which consists of elemental components such as plastic, paper, glass, metal, wood and other elements collected by the artist from within the railings of urban spaces. The objects within reach carry social history, suggesting a fleeting enjoyment of a more lively time, with faded hues and dry materials conveying the tragic overtones of the damaged world from which they come. In Gallery 2, Yu Yang presents performance documents that frequently involve banal situations, ordinary activities, and mundane tasks that we do automatically, yet acted out in a shifted context. For example, one performance file shows him sitting in front of a bar waiting for someone to pick up a lighter from him, an act he likens to passing a sacred flame. The exhibition juxtaposes the performance archive with a chance discovery of Kafka's novel The Trial, placing the archival record within the plot of the novel and suggesting a new dimension to the work. Yu Yang is a self-trained artist living and working in Edinburgh. He perceives himself as a writer utilizing the visual language of art and engages in a conceptual approach, wherein he revisits and reimagines quotidian experiences. His practice is marked by a sense of restraint and simplicity, and he often creates works that are deliberately subtle and understated with a literary overtone. Through manipulating familiar forms drawn from the mundane, he endeavours to examine the intersection of visual arts and literature within contemporary societies.