Yin Xiuzhen’s exhibition at CHAT marks the Beijing artist’s first solo institutional presentation in Hong Kong.
Yin’s art often revolves around the use of found objects that have been marked with personal traces. Through the process of collaging and rearranging old objects, she interweaves together codependent or contradicting memories and experiences, both personal and communal, thus contemplating the condition of the individual in our fast-changing political, social and natural environments. The COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out during the planning of this exhibition, has set off an unprecedented revolution, changing everything we know—from the global political and economic landscapes, to our daily lives and collective psyche. Yin has also channeled her experiences and reflections from the pandemic into her solo exhibition.
Fracture and suture, opposition and integration— these antithetical motifs and concepts are explored in this exhibition, which includes Yin’s new series of video works and a number of her best-known works. Using her familial relationships as an entry point, Yin delves into and reinterprets her mother’s past as a textile factory worker and the role it plays in family estrangement and intergenerational communication through her exhibited works. What follows is a sentimental contemplation on the monumental impact China’s industrial development has had on the country’s social fabric and the lives of its people. On top of her iconic works featuring used garments, a number of past photography works and installations paint a fuller picture of the artist’s cross-medium practice, while also given new meanings and depths as presented in the current context.
The exhibition space, designed by Yin herself, is meant to break the conventional way of visiting CHAT’s galleries. The whole space is given a new look with a visiting route that includes the permanent display at The D. H. Chen Foundation Gallery as part of the experience, thus incorporating stories of Hong Kong’s textile industry into the seasonal presentation. This creates an interesting parallel with Yin’s artworks, and brings into focus the conflicts and imaginations of different collective memories produced by their respective socio-economical backgrounds.
We hope that Yin’s artistic creations, which masks struggles and conflicts with a sense of poetry and humour, will be a heartwarming and thought-evoking experience for visitors.
