Yang Fudong

Yang Fudong ( born 1971 in Beijing) is a Chinese contemporary artist.

In the early 1990s, he began to work with film.

He began creating films and videos using 35 mm film.

Currently Yang directs films, creates photographs, and creates video installations.

Yang is known to explore themes that are historical, social, and political by juxtaposing contradictions between current social issues, with cultural norms.

A fan of the abstract and fragmented storyline, he tends to create sequences that are long and suspended, with the use of black-and-white as a constant.

Yang's work has a nostalgic feel that incorporates the lyrical harmony of traditional handscrolls with the expressiveness of new wave cinema that is reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch, someone he admires.

His work has been exhibited in China through avant-garde exhibitions in the late 1990s and has been consequently shown in many countries including solo presentations in Parasol Unit, London (2011); National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2010); Asia Society, New York (2009); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2005); Castello di Rivoli, Torino (2005); and the Renaissance Society, Chicago (2004).

Yang graduated in oil painting from China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou in 1995.

East of Que Village is a six-channel film with black and white color.

It shows a wild pack of dogs looking to scavenge in a small northern Chinese town on the outskirts of Beijing.

This small rural town seems to bring up memories of Yang's own childhood and his hometown.

The town is empty and basically evacuated.

Yang Fudong is trying to show how contemporary China has moved away from its traditions and from a certain part of life.

Yang shows the dogs struggling to find food until they turn against each other just for survival.

There is a small group of people the dogs come across which immediately makes the viewer feel the humans must also be struggling to survive in the same way the dogs are.

Yang Fudong shows a strong question of whether or not the contemporary movement in China is helping the country or making them weaker.

He relates this film to his own personal life as well as his own experiences.

It shows the isolation and emptiness every human feels at one point in their life.

This film has a couple of messages in it but it does not overload the viewer.

Yang Fudong gives one overall message to the audience to create an experience from which they can grow.

The whole experience is important.

There are six screens all playing at the same time with different film going on them.

The whole viewing area is overwhelmed with the sounds of barking and the sounds of people (from the film).

Yang Fudong captures the audience with his interesting work and his simply conveyed themes.

This is one of Yang Fudong's more personal works.

This is a black and white film that is viewed on many different screens just as East of Que Village.

In this film, Yang describes the troubles and difficulties for young people face growing up in a world heading towards modernism.

Yang Fudong is one of these young people who are trying to find their way in the modern world.

They do not want to discard all tradition but they realize the fast-growing world is all around them.

No Snow on the Broken Bridge shows the experiences and emotions that Yang Fudong feels towards this movement and it portrays how his generation fells.

Yang Fudong shows the isolation and alienation young intellectuals feel is today's society.

This film is another example of how he captures the feelings of a whole generation in his films.

This is another one of Yang's video installations.

In 2013, Kunsthalle Zurich and Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive co-organized his first retrospective exhibition.

Yang Fudong has participated in prestigious international art events including the Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2013); Venice Biennale, Italy (2003 and 2007); The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Australia (2006); Documenta XI, Germany (2002).

He is represented by and regularly exhibits his work at Chinese contemporary art gallery ShanghART Gallery.

Yang Fudong's most popular works include: Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forrest, The Fifth Night, the 17th Biennale of Sydney, East of Que Village, An Estranged Paradise, Backyard- Hey!

Sun is Rising, and No Snow on the Broken Bridge.

Recent exhibitions include Yang Fudong at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK; Moving Mountains, OCAT Xi'an, China (both 2017) and Filmscapes, at ACMI, Melbourne (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) which traveled to the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, New Zealand (2015-2016).