Yuchen Fang
Front and Back
2017
Wood, Acrylic
Considered the boundaries of space are the fundamental factors to form the space, the concept of this work is inspired from the corner of the room and the horizon.
Somewhere
2017
Paper, Metal, Acrylic
It's a series of printed and collaged pieces using some of the photographs and ideas I've taken on a trip. The theme of the discussion is about places that people have been to and where they have not been. How have you been emotionally defined “visited” or “never”? How do you build memories on these? The barbed wire in the work and the places in the picture, are metaphors for something that has been in existence but neglected. These also means some events have really happened, but does not constitute a memory.
In the process of discussing the relationship of the interaction and interplay between space and people, I began to think about it from myself. I considered the relationship between space and me, such as the influence of space on me and my reaction to space.
This group of works uses "corner" as the starting point as well, and uses the same structures and blocks to make two different combinations.
One of them, takes individuality as the priority to construct in space and subjectivity change the objectivity. The structure built on the wall is constructed based on my understanding of corner and the aesthetic of structural rationality. The other, takes the space as the priority to construct in the discipline of objectivity instead of subjectivity. For example, choosing a corner in space and create a work based on that in limited circumstances.
For me, this is an interesting attempt, and I like it very much. The photograph itself has a narrative attribute, which is closer to the real or some part of the memory. The pictures were taken on the train from Warsaw to Berlin. The photos were taken somewhere the train passed through where I couldn't know exactly where it was. I took a panoramic picture through the train window using my phone. As the train running fast and bumping, the photo shows a continuous breakage, giving people a sense of breaking
and blurring. I was immersed in it at that time, and took a lot of photos in the same way. Then I picked three of them to make this work. These three pictures have wonderful lines and a sense of composition, as well as some abrupt but delicate things, such as single withered trees, straight rails, and incomplete buildings like collagist.
My ideas and expressions about space tend to the subjective relationship between space and people, not just the objective space only. The influence and variation from this relationship are the focus of my research.
The instability, loneliness and insecurity of the composition become the main subject of the works. The main elements appeared in the works are still inspired from fundamental things in space, such as a brick and a corner of the room. Some pieces of wood are painted with grey shadows and made as a hint of corner.
Form and Composition become more and more important in my works.
The Concealed Rays
2016
Wood, soil, feather, leaves
25 artists from the MFA course of Wimbledon College of Art have had a show named “In The Shadows of A Subterranean River” in the Crypt Gallery in October 2016. Crypt Gallery is under the St. Pancras Parish Church. It is defined by its location, function and history, which are about death, dark, river, etc.
My work is always about the space. Before the Crypt Show, I was mainly concerning topics about general space. The Crypt Show was a good chance for me to focus on a certain space and make my idea more specific and clear as well.
In the summer of 2016, I visited the Brompton Cemetery. I draw some small paintings, trying to immerse into the peaceful cemetery space. I seek and analysed the lines in the cemetery. The lines changed with light and shadows. They were the abstract structures of that space at that time. Specific objects such like tombstones and people around were removed from the paintings. The shadow and edge of those objects are left in the paintings to constitute the sense of movement.
The soil, leaves and feathers are the elements that identify this space. In order to express the process of constructing the space, leaves from natural were made of a brick. The corrupted leaves are closely related to the theme. In the dim light, when viewers go close to see what it is, they can even smell it like the soil covered by withered leaves. I would like to make my work to make viewers feel immersive while they are watching it, and even becomes the moving part of it. The painting as a part of the work shows the origin of the whole process, and indicates viewer to understand the concept.
The Crypt Show was a complete process, including planning, investigating, summarising, predicting and the exhibition. This project as the start of my year 2 at Wimbledon College of art, made my thinking more clear, research more reasonable, which quite benefits my works in the next step.
PaIntings painted in cemetery, 2016
One or another
2016
Wood, gypsum, acrylic
This is the Unit 2 assessment work based on the memory in studios. It is an expression of a sense of dislocation of space. There is a common sense that in circumstances of a special light or with an ambiguous consciousness, a person might doubt the place he/she was in, feels like another familiar space at the same moment. This feeling is transient and elusive. I tried to use my work to recur that moment with that feeling.
The inspiration comes from my experience at Wimbledon studio. As an over sea student, I always feel that there is a distance between London and me. However, sometimes the memory mixed together. This kind of feeling was intriguing and elusive.
White wall and wooden floor constitute the general space, which brings familiarity to viewers. In the mean time, the inversion makes them feel unusual and disordered. The colour shows the identity of the space. Its direction of flowing also implies and magnifies the sense of dislocation.
The Order
2016
Acrylic on wood
At this stage I pay more attention to the topics about the structure of space and time and how people act and find balance within this structure. I do researches to explore the relationship between human beings and their surrounding environment.
This is a series of works collaged by pieces of wood, I painted on them and then made them collaged. The painting takes the form of the architectural tubes around the space. I hope my work in some way holds a mirror up to the viewer, inviting them to rethink their position in the space. At the beginning of the series, there was a clear structure in my mind. I was convinced that purity and clarity of form would be the right direction. After making a series of square shaped tube paintings, I felt that I had achieved a strong visual impact, but I wondered about how to develop the series further.
During the Angel’s Den, we discussed this problem. I found two potential solutions, one concerning the size of the work, and another about how to expand flat paintings to create a more immersive experience. I thoughtI could try to let paintings expand out of the wall. I made one piece of work belonging to the tube series that was a step closer to expanded painting. The tube series aims to express how human beings position themselves within the fabric of space and time. This expanded work is more real and closer to the audience, and it took the first step to break the limit of painting for me.
Coincidence
2016
Plaster, metal
The idea of this work based on a talk about the coincidence in space and time. At the time, the geometric forms inspired from architecture are quite important in my work, and I wanted to explore more ways to make works. I was trying to find different conversations between the geometric shapes and different materials.
Foam cubes covered with white plaster, and one of the cubes owns a piece of thin metal inside, the materials are all related to the architectural space. The two cubes look smoothy but some part of it may be sharp, they look heavy, however they are very light, that w a s also an interesting point of being antithetic.
At stage 1, the idea was about the structure of space and time, under this big theme, the works came out with different topics about it. I tried different methods and materials to express the idea, I expanded painting and made 3 dimensional works. This was a mapping stage, the idea was coming out but still need to be more explicit,
At stage 2, the idea was focus on the interactive relationship between space and people, I tried to make it more specific and discuss one particular space in each work. I wanted to express my idea in real space, so I felt limited of make just two-dimensional work. As a result, my direction in stage 2 was about transforming my work from two-dimension to three-dimension. This was a developing stage, the concept and research questions became clear, and I got a direction of make works.
Materials, such as concrete, metal, and woods, are used as a result of allegiance to building space. At this stage I was quite interested in the Brutalist architecture, especially the Brutalist architecture in London, it has its specific history. I like the heaviness feeling of the concrete and the intuitive sense of architecture build of concrete, so crude, direct, and powerful. When the concrete is placed in high, it looks firm but crumbling. A thin, coarse structure around a concrete block might give a meaning or feeling of protection or control.
The composition and construction of the work is an obviously important point. Concerning the form of the structure, my work basically uses vertical lines, which are the formation of corners in a wider space layout, and at the same time they become the medium of connecting the wall with the ground and the objects in space. In the April of 2017, I went to see the exhibition Done With Objects Because Things Take Place in London FOLD Gallery. In the exhibition, Valérie Kolakis makes structures to cut or connect the space in a very effective way, and they creates different atmosphere of feelings, that gives some inspirations to my thinking of composing the elements of my work.
During the development of this work, I tried to make the wooden frame black. As a result, I felt the difference of colours is too obvious, the texture of wood becomes indistinctive, which may lead people to draw most attention to the parts of the concrete block or just the structures around. However, this is not an ideal result, I hope the work could be more consistent.
This work comes from the thought of corner. In physics, the corner is the fundamental element of buildings. The corner plays a very important role in space. It determines the shape of the space, and it is a form of point, line and surface, with building materials, connecting wall, ground and ceiling. I read a book called "The Poetics of Space”, there are a lot of special and interesting views in the book about the space and the belonging elements in it. When referring to the corner, the author mentions that people's dependence on corners is like a quest for an exclusive shelter. People might feel lonely in the corner, however at the same time enjoy a sense of safety. The work is based on the relationship between loneliness, sense of security and the corner.
Precarious Corner
2017
Wood, Concrete, Metal
When I consider more about space, the more I consider about the relationship between space and people. When "Space filled with human’s consciousness" is established in my mind, it becomes an important point of my interest, which guides my creation of the work.
Selected Photos taken on the train from Warsaw to Berlin, 2017
To solve the problem, I tried to make the material becomes more consistent, I made the structure covered with concrete texture mixed with dark colour, so there is a delicate difference in colour, but not too obvious to jump out of the whole work.
I tried to make the whole work looks like an integral one with subtle distinguishable details, which would make the viewer pay more attention to the work in general. All my works are very discreet in the use of colours. In this work, the bright metal hemispherical on the ground is quite different from the concrete materials. It acts as a reflection and collection of the colour projection in the surrounding space. This collection of colours in real space makes me feel meaningful. And its material and shape seem like some kind of emotional metaphor as well.
Precarious Corner in a bright space
The material
First draft of the work
The process
Precarious Corner in MFA show
The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard
Composition 1
Composition 2
The work begins with the corner