Yang Fudong No Snow on the Broken Bridge

Yang Fudong No Snow on the Broken Bridge

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation Sydney

Yang Fudong No Snow on the Broken Bridge

Contents

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Preface Gene Sherman 15

Beauty and Cruelty Claire Roberts 31

No Snow on the Broken Bridge 133

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation 18 March – 4 June 2011

Production Credits

Also screening is Yang Fudong’s seminal five-part film Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest

Selected Biography

134

137

Selected Bibliography 141

Contributors 142

Acknowledgements

Preface Gene Sherman Chairman and Executive Director Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

Three is often considered a significant number. The ancient traditions of storytelling were often underpinned by structures that clearly demarcated a beginning, middle and end. Through the nineteenth century, and up until the First World War, these narrative structures persisted. Early twentieth century attempts by writers to disrupt the tripartite composition – such as Gertrude Stein’s now largely defunct experimental texts and James Joyce’s more robust forays into stream of consciousness storytelling – failed to garner large audiences but they became launch pads for the nouveau roman writers of the 1950s who freely experimented with narrative styles.

Binary, episodic and epistolary approaches clearly often work, but our human consciousness, Western trained at least, responds intuitively to the Hegelian model: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. We seem to feel comfortable with structures that encompass this triad: one, two, three; ready, set, go; beginning, middle, end. All remain deeply satisfying paradigms embedded somewhere, perhaps in the human DNA. Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) has reached the end of its third year of operation: three projects per year, three Culture + Ideas forums per project; the number three subconsciously chosen perhaps to mesh with our own rhythms and the expectations of our audiences. Time to sum up? Not yet! Suffice to say that at this point in the Foundation’s three-year trajectory six commissioned projects by artists from China, India, Japan, Taiwan and Australia have been initiated, funded and activated. Two major international projects have been re-presented in Australia (Fiona Tan’s Disorient1 and Jitish Kallat’s Aquasaurus) and cultures from East Asia and the Middle East have been explored in our curated film project, The view from elsewhere. Most recently, young students have enjoyed Contemporary Art for Contemporary Kids,2 a three-month, five-artist exhibition created specifically for them.

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Our engagement with Asia continues in 2011 with the presentation of two major films by Chinese artist Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge, 2006, in our main gallery, and Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, 2003–07, in the theatre annexe. Yang Fudong’s films challenge our innate desire for resolution. Gloriously sumptuous and highly stylised, they avoid a clear narrative and remain open-ended. While he has been included in recent large-scale exhibitions in Australia, including the Biennale of Sydney, 2010, and the Queensland Art Gallery’s Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, 2006–07, I first came across Yang Fudong’s work close to a decade ago, its impact on me then as powerful as it is now.

Beijing 2003: I had travelled with a Sherman Galleries’ major collector and longstanding friend, Lynette Fern, to the first Beijing Biennale, an early government-sanctioned international exhibition that seemed to encompass a rather odd assortment of major and minor artists. The exhibition was stressful; the organisation of large-scale international exhibitions was still new territory in China. Exhausted by bureaucratic bungles and linguistic lapses, we explored unofficial exhibition spaces and stumbled across Alternative Modernity: An Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art at X-Ray Art Centre. We were both transfixed by Yang Fudong’s Liu Lan, created that same year. Poetry meshed with a dreamy nostalgia.

Evocations of Chinese films of the twenties and thirties seemed to float through the space, in sharp contrast to the underwhelming images we had viewed thus far. Narratives were unclear. Beginning, middle and end felt elusive. Yet a certain mood prevailed; a link between natural phenomena and psychological state. Languid people, whose state of being ebbed and flowed with subtle changes in their surroundings, lulled us with soporific gestures into a dream-like state. Senses aroused, sense of place suggested. Nothing fixed, nothing concluded. Having both decided to acquire the work, we were surprised to find the edition had already sold out.

Shanghai 2007: I found my way to the well-known ShangART Gallery, founded by Swiss gallerist Lorenz Helbling. Just over ten years old, the gallery had quickly built a reputation, paralleling the burgeoning fortunes of a number of contemporary Chinese artists. I visited the space I knew well, set in a tranquil park; modest but welcoming.There I was told a warehouse annexe had opened further afield, rougher in aspect and far, far larger. Yang Fudong was showcasing his new work, No Snow on the Broken Bridge, an eight-part screened piece that must be seen. I was not disappointed.The monumental curvilinear screens embraced and engulfed viewers as Liu Lan had done a few years earlier. Investigations of psychological states brought to the screen through the meanderings of a cast of period-dressed urbanites evoked abandoned traditions, historical scenarios and contemporary societal concerns. An ennui pervaded the work, neither dispiriting nor immobilising; dreams and reality meshed seamlessly and I, together with rapt audience companions, emerged more uncertain of the world 5

perhaps, but surprisingly refreshed.This time I was determined not to miss the acquisition boat. In conversation with the gallery director with regard to availability of stills, edition numbers and pricing, our dialogue was rudely interrupted by an aggressive Frenchman who railed on, in French, about his right to make an early selection and his standing as an important collector. My English/French bilingualism has never served me better.The longer the rant, the more determined I was to add a Yang Fudong from this series to our family’s private collection. Amazed by my interjection in French, he was embarrassed by his dismissal of me.

He backed down abruptly and No Snow on the Broken Bridge sits quietly behind me as I write this preface and as I work daily in my home study. I had finally connected with the artist, albeit at a distance.

Venice 2007:The Venice Biennale remains, after more than 100 years, the mother of all international exhibitions. Vast in scale (many say too vast for twenty-first century time-poor art professionals, who traditionally throng the three-day vernissage) and authoritative at every level, artists selected to represent their countries in purposebuilt edifices or rented palazzos vie for attention with those included in the mega, much-anticipated Arsenale show, curated in rotation by top-tier art luminaries. In 2007, Yang Fudong’s Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest took centre stage in the gigantic spaces of the munitions and shipbuilding structures that bear testimony to Venice’s turbulent maritime history.The five-part work was staged in mini screening rooms at specific intervals along the never-ending series of rectangular rooms traversed by journalists, museum directors and curators from across the globe and a potpourri of gallerists, collectors, critics, academics and star artists. In Venice, the Biennale continues to draw audiences for months after the opening, but the vernissage is the key moment. A work either comes into focus against massive competition or remains in the shadows. Seven Intellectuals wowed the crowd: five parts, approximately five hours in duration, five years to make.The urbanites or intellectuals move through various scenarios. Part 1 takes them to mountainous Huangshan where they traverse and marvel at the astounding landscape described by Marco Polo in the thirteenth century. Part 2 sees the group living in a metropolitan building, where exchanges about sex and relationships are intensified in cramped interior scenes. In Part 3 the friends foray into the countryside, labouring mightily alongside the local peasantry (a clear reference to the Cultural Revolution practice of middle class banishment to remote rural areas in the interests of ‘reeducation’ and the promotion of physical as opposed to cerebral work).

Part 4 suggests utopia as the party arrives on a tiny island, surrounded by the sea of forgetfulness. Finally, in Part 5 they return to reality, to the city from whence they had come. Still exploring, their youthful search for meaning remains unresolved.

The film is an immersive experience which remains, in its deliberate ambiguity, happily free of the restrictions normally placed on mainstream cinema by the Chinese Government. References to tradition abound. For the highly literate in the Chinese community 6

No Snow on the Broken Bridge (Duan qiao wu xue), 2006 Installation view, ShangART Gallery H-Space, Shanghai.

the work reads as an adaptation of the stories surrounding the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a group of third century philosophers who assemble in a bamboo grove to distance themselves from real world politics and corruption. An irresistible still from Part 4 has recently made its way into our family collection, a testimony to my now longstanding interest in Yang Fudong’s work.

Japan 2010: The end of my tale is nigh. A trip to Tokyo in March with colleague Anna Waldmann saw us rushing to catch a Yang Fudong survey exhibition at the privately funded Hara Museum.

The show comprised a variety of known and unknown works by the artist, with the pièce de résistance, The General’s Smile, 2009, presented as a surreal dinner party on a long table in the dining room of the original Hara family home. A hugely attractive and complex work that should not be missed when the opportunity arises.

The Foundation is proud and immensely honoured to present both No Snow on the Broken Bridge and Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest in our 2011 opening exhibition. We appreciate the opportunity to bring two monumental works by a critically important mid-generation Chinese artist to communities in Sydney and nationally.

The Foundation’s goal remains clear: to connect Australian and AsiaPacific audiences with the best practice in our highly creative region, whilst giving artists the opportunity to create their dream or present their most fully resolved major works, free of all financial constraints.

Engage and enjoy.

Endnotes

1.

The exhibition Fiona Tan: Coming Home was presented in association with the National Art School, Sydney. Disorient, 2009, was screened at SCAF; A Lapse of Memory, 2007, was screened at the National Art School Gallery.

2.

The exhibitions The view from elsewhere, 2009, and Contemporary Art for Contemporary Kids, 2010, were presented in partnership with the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.

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Beauty and Cruelty Claire Roberts

Previous pages No Snow on the Broken Bridge (Duan qiao wu xue), 2006 Production stills.

Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Zhu lin qi xian), Part 1, 2003 Production still.

A postcard-like set of travel notes on the good life.

p. 29

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There is just one image of Yang Fudong in the ‘personal photo album’ on his website, a colour photograph taken in Tian’anmen Square.1 His bespectacled eyes meet those of the viewer with a degree of reserve, his long hair tousled by the wind. Behind him, gazing out over his shoulder, is Mao Zedong, whose omnipresent painted portrait has hung above Tian’anmen Gate since 1949.2 The photograph was taken some years ago by a photojournalist for a Shanghai magazine profile. Yang’s wife, a novelist, liked the image because the eyeglasses, which he does not normally wear, ‘made him look cultivated’. The dual portrait suggests a multiplicity of complex narratives that inform contemporary Chinese culture, including the relationship between the past and the present; the state and the individual; art and propaganda; painting and photography; myth and reality; beauty and cruelty.

Yang Fudong’s family comes from Xianghe (meaning Fragrant River), a village in Hebei, two hours by car north-east of Beijing. The rural settlement is similar to that featured in his bleak documentary-style film East of Que Village, 2007. Included in the 2010 Biennale of Sydney, the six-channel work filmed in winter features dogs. ‘They look like wild dogs,’ Yang says, ‘and yet they cannot leave the village … They depend on people to survive, but they are not people … They were aggressive and scary but they were also prone to dying in winter.’

Yang was born in 1971 and grew up in a military compound where his father belonged to an infantry unit that was part of a garrison for the defence of Beijing. Yang was a model student and top of the local school in the three areas that counted most: moral conduct, academic study and physical education. When he injured his leg playing soccer, he quickly discovered a passion for drawing.

A combination of aptitude and hard work got him out of the military compound and into the middle school affiliated with the Central 15

Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Zhu lin qi xian), Part 1, 2003 Production still.

Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, a feeder for China’s most prestigious art academy. But to Yang’s disappointment he was not offered a place at CAFA. Instead, with some trepidation, he travelled south to study oil painting at the equally well-regarded China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, a city that is famous for its gardens and the West Lake. It was a turning point in his life.

Yang graduated in 1995 but was frustrated with oil painting.

He speaks of his difficulty in finding a natural or comfortable painting method. His graduation work was a series of four huge paintings, totalling some 7 metres in length, painted in what is in retrospect a rather filmic manner, with multiple disorienting and overlapping images concerned with city pollution, policing and safety, and for which he was given an assessment of 3 out of 5. But the work that best indicates his future creative direction was a performance conducted over a three-month period in 1993 (not part of his formal assessment), in which he did not speak and all communication was written on his hand. Through this bodywork, titled That Place, Yang was able to slow down and, he says, think independently. He saw things more clearly and began to ponder the metaphysical dimension of life and art. He became interested in consciousness, and in particular the consciousness of educated youth, like himself.

In the years since then Yang Fudong has become one of the most interesting contemporary Chinese artists working in the area of photography, video and film. What is remarkable about his

Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Zhu lin qi xian), Part 2, 2004 Production still.

Closed life in a flourishing city. No matter what city you inhabit, you understand nothing better than your own family, your home, and those private spaces that truly belong to you.

pp. 32–131

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work is the way in which he has been able (when he has wanted) to make connections with the visual and aesthetic cultures of China’s past and yet remain very much of the present. He plays with memory and myth and is a master of pictorial allusion and affect. He is not overwhelmed by China’s visual past, seeing it as a complex language that continues to evolve, and to which he is connected. In conversation, for example, he talks of his admiration for the modern brush-and-ink painter Fu Baoshi (1904–65) who, he says, ‘did something different.

With his figures painted in an antique mode he moved things forward a lot … His paintings are beautiful … He is like a hot-blooded youth. His paintings give you a feeling of the extraordinary.’

In No Snow on the Broken Bridge, 2006, a work that refers to the phrase ‘Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge’, one of the acknowledged ‘Ten Famous Views of the West Lake’, Yang Fudong makes sophisticated use of artistic language: a monochrome palette; striking juxtapositions of close-up and distant views; young men and beautiful women (some in drag); landscape (mountain and water); rocks and trees; willow shoots and plum blossom; wind and snow; silk and fur; poetry and music; action and suggestion. Visually seductive images are projected onto eight large screens that immerse us in a familiar yet unfamiliar world of Yang Fudong’s making; interconnected narratives without beginning or end that captivate and confound us until we choose to look at another screen, or move on. People promenade in pairs or foursomes, exploring the environment – rustic pathways and tea plantations, gardens and lakeside pavilions – and their inner selves; and go boating on the West Lake to better appreciate the view of the ‘Broken Bridge’. The appearance of a mountain goat on a leash and a cockatoo tethered to a carrying frame suggests subservience and a desire to treat animals and birds as objects of curiosity or aesthetic pleasure – an expression of beauty, kindness or cruelty?

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Yang’s photographs and films are about moods and sensibilities, thoughts and feelings, escape and entrapment, truth and deception. They plumb emotional depths, drawing strength from deeply felt aspects of life and culture. Yet at the same time they are questing and questioning, empty and illusory, using visual and sensory means to give form to things that have no form. We are overwhelmed by the disconcerting beauty portrayed in No Snow on the Broken Bridge, a beauty that exists in places that are deeply familiar; just as in the case of East of Que Village, it is the unrelenting harshness and cruelty within the ordinary that strikes us.

During a pause in our interview, Yang Fudong drew my attention to a climbing plant that was growing between the old, double-glazed window panes in his studio in Taopu, part of a huge new art complex in a converted textile factory west of Shanghai.

The vine was vigorous with brilliant green leaves that looked even more intensely coloured against the fresh whitewash of the studio walls. The wild plant had found its way into his studio and through its fecund growth was creating a natural screen between the windowpanes. Yang was helping it along with a tie here and there and seemed to take delight in this natural intervention, an emblem of life forcing its way into his studio space, its fragile beauty contending with concrete, steel and glass.

Left and opposite Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Zhu lin qi xian), Part 3, 2006 Production still.

Another kind of life. They leave the city and head into the country, a real farming village, plowing by day and resting by night, forgetting all that bothers them.

No Snow on the Broken Bridge: An interview with Yang Fudong

Claire Roberts: What did you hope to achieve in No Snow on the Broken Bridge? Why did you make this film?

Hangzhou is where I went to art school and the landscape of Hangzhou is typical of southern China. One of the most famous views there on the edge of the West Lake is known as ‘Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge’.3 My film is called No Snow on the Broken Bridge, indicating a difference. The feeling conveyed [by the historic phrase] is that after snow has stopped falling, feelings associated with snow remain: iciness, cruelty and indifference. The beauty that is evoked is like that of an ice maiden.

So many people find ‘Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge’ rather sad and distant … In No Snow on the Broken Bridge I wanted to create a mood that anticipates snowfall and the beauty of snowfall, a coldness that is also very beautiful. The bitter cold has not yet arrived, so there is warmth and hope. In your heart you are expectant. On the surface it looks ice-cold and distant but there is in fact a feeling of hope …

The choice of long robes for the men and qipao for the women – clothing similar to that worn during the May Fourth [1919] period,4 which some have suggested is an allusion to the Republican period5 – evokes the feeling of people from an earlier time; young men and beautiful women living in Hangzhou. The West Lake and places nearby like Lingyin Temple are famous beauty spots. Many people from all over China and from overseas go there as tourists, people passing through. In No Snow on the Broken Bridge it is as if Yang Fudong:

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Below and opposite Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Zhu lin qi xian), Part 4, 2007 Production still.

A tiny island of belief.

They like the sea. They like living undisturbed, isolated. Perhaps this is life in utopia.

every person is a traveller. They appreciate the hills and streams, go for walks in the forest and along the edge of West Lake, think their own thoughts, but they are not of the place. Even though they hope that something might happen to them there, that they will see or encounter something, whatever it is that they are expecting to happen has nothing to do with the place. The travellers come with traces of other things in their heart/mind, and a sense of anticipation.

While they are in this environment there is no concept of time. There is no past and it is hard to predict the future. It is what is going on in their hearts and minds that is important …

By projecting images onto eight screens, I hope that viewers will look at the screens one at a time, or jump from one to another, or watch one screen for one minute and then move onto another, or else see it to the end. You can also just sit there in a daze.

Looking at eight screens you probably won’t look at any one screen very closely. You can see it as eight movies or one-eighth of a movie.

Maybe your vision is blurred when you are watching it, and you are probably thinking about other things; you are in a daze … but while you are in this dazed state, the sense that you are making of it in your mind, and your thoughts about other things, is another version of No Snow on the Broken Bridge … When people view the work I want them to think of it as a free-form film … my hope is that viewers will engage with the video freely, without any kind of pressure, and experience it in their own way.

What is the role of animals and birds in the film?

Animals are the same as people. They are living. They convey a feeling of life, an alternative life to humans. The mountain goat has a soul and the cockatoo has a heart/mind. They too live in the hills near West Lake. Like people they have a consciousness. When the mountain goat is being led and does not want to follow and kneels down on the ground, it is hard to say to what extent it is dependent on the person … [but] the cockatoo [tethered on a perch] is a pet and dependent on humans, it has become an aesthetic object … The status of the animals and birds has been conferred on them by people.

It is difficult to understand whether it is bestowed out of feelings of benevolence or of cruelty, or whether they represent beauty, but it is a status that has been bestowed on them.

Can you describe the process of filming No Snow on the Broken Bridge? How flexible was the process?

It’s not really about being flexible. When you start filming you have already thought things through; for example, that there will be eight screens. There is an overall direction. And maybe you already know, in a broad sense, that the first screen will probably focus on mountains and the West Lake, that the second screen will have men, with some close-ups, and the third the water of West Lake and so on … They are filmed one by one, but when you are filming you are also thinking that when they are screened it may be that four screens all have scenes of West Lake at the same time. Things like this you have to think through in advance; that one of those screens will be to the left and another to the right and another somewhere else, and that when they are viewed as a whole, these screens will be together …

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Could we talk about the editing of your films?

pp. 14 –23

Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Zhu lin qi xian), Part 5, 2007 Production still.

They return to the city, devoid of identity.

Perhaps they are many people, perhaps they are seven. Perhaps they are in a dream. From beginning to end, they cannot find their position.

They are still a collective of youth; a future, unknown collective.

Sometimes, after I have finished filming, I really don’t want to look at the material straight away; there is a feeling of not wanting to touch any of it. That was particularly the case after filming Seven Intellectuals … Sometimes after filming you are left with a feeling of beauty: [the experience of] a group of people working closely together, on an island, living together for one month in order to make the film … Each day is very full, and as soon as the filming comes to an end you don’t want to look at the material, at least not so quickly … Filming the way I do, sometimes [the material is] not particularly explicit, or there is no definite content or narrative … When it feels as though there has been sufficient time for the material to breathe, then it is ready to be looked at … If you start editing immediately after you have finished filming it may be that you are unable to appreciate good things that are there but which you did not feel were particularly interesting during the course of filming. So you need to pause.

Do you edit your work yourself?

Again, it is different for each work. Sometimes I do all of the editing myself. No Snow is the kind of work that I would edit by myself, because no one else can enter into the process. It may be that in the early stages there is some basic preparatory work that someone else can help me with, but in general people would not know where to begin … they don’t know what you want. If you work with an editor, it can be a real headache for them, because they know that all of the ideas are inside your head. It’s not like being the director of an ordinary feature film with a script and after the filming has finished the editor very quickly completes a preliminary cut based on the script … It is more like being in your own exhibition hanging paintings, moving them around [to suit the space]. During this process the most anyone else can do is to hold up the paintings or move them this way or that. So it’s quite tough [on an editor].They would be like an assistant rather than an editor. Many artists who work in film direct and edit [their own work], which complicates things.

Is the process of editing very long?

It’s not too bad. I think it usually takes about two weeks … I give a lot of thought to what I will do and then I gradually start working. Once I start it is fast.

How do you feel when you are editing?

When you are editing, the work is becoming more and more real. At the very least [the process of editing] shows viewers what you have been building. During this time you are constructing this house one brick and one tile at a time. You have to proceed according to the building that 22

pp. 24–26

exists in your mind, no matter what it looks like. Editing requires you to construct the building.That is why people say that editing is a bit like the second phase of creation.There is some truth in this.These days great emphasis is placed on the artist’s first cut. When you are editing, a lot of the time you are making decisions on the basis of your feelings, so that whatever the first cut looks like, that is that.These days I usually follow this practice, editing according to my initial feeling. If after one year I am not inclined to re-edit, even though there might be problems, or the film is a bit too long or short in places, I try and not touch it because at the time that is what worked. Early on [1997], An Estranged Paradise, for example, was about 90 minutes after the first rough edit. Later on, in 2002, when it was screened at Documenta, it was re-edited and after post-production was 74 minutes. I then re-edited it again [and it is now 76 minutes] … In 1997 it was edited according to my taste then, but in 2002 I brought a completely different sensibility to the work. You could say you have more experience, but you will have forgotten certain things.

Can you talk about the relationship between No Snow on the Broken Bridge and your earlier film An Estranged Paradise – both filmed in Hangzhou?

No Snow was filmed in 2006 and Estranged Paradise in 1997. Both were filmed in Hangzhou, which is regarded as a kind of paradise.

When I was making Estranged Paradise I loved Hangzhou. I was there for four years, at university. It was where I grew up. I felt great emotion towards the place … the West Lake, everything so beautiful.

When I was making the film it was about the thoughts and ideas of young people, the anxiety of growing up, questioning, hope, the search for beliefs and ideals … in contrast to the reality of life. It was like the feeling of early spring when the days are cold but you can 23

Below, opposite and overleaf An Estranged Paradise (Mo sheng tian tang), 2002 35 mm B&W film transferred to video, duration 76 mins Production still.

smell spring in the air. You can smell hope. It is a film about emotions associated with Hangzhou and about understanding life.

To come back and film Hangzhou again [ten years later] it’s no problem to film it, but in the process you realise the extent of change that has occurred.There are many more tourists and there has been a lot of reconstruction. Some beautiful places no longer exist. In the past, on a winter’s day, you could sit on a rock next to a willow tree. It was a pleasant thing to do at lunchtime.Today, the tree emerges from a square hole in the pavement and is surrounded by a barricade. Everything has a railing around it. Every bit of nature has been fenced in.The surroundings have been beautified … but the effect is very ordinary.The slightly wild quality, a feeling associated with wind [that was so typical of Hangzhou], has gone. When I was filming [No Snow] I tried to find places that retained some of Hangzhou’s former beauty6 … If we are still to call Hangzhou paradise, then it has become an overly refined kind of paradise …

I made the right decision to attend the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Art [in Hangzhou, now called the China Academy of Art].

That school gave me the kind of education of which the benefits were impossible to see at the time. What’s important is not who taught me to paint, but the aesthetic education that I received. It taught me about beauty. During that time it was not a question of what people painted or how good a painting was. Rather, what was passed on was something more fundamental, like ‘spirit points’ or spirit consciousness.

Let me give you an example. While you might appreciate or accept something, even savour it, when it comes to building that tall building, to painting it, I would never use the brush-and-ink painting [techniques] of former times. That would be impossible. That is why some of the [artistic] principles are interesting. An architect might create a beautiful building in Shanghai, and you observe that the building is so postmodern, so avant-garde, and ask where his ideas

for the building came from, and he responds with one sentence: the landscape paintings of Huang Binhong (1865–1955). If he said that, I would believe him. [To me,] that is interesting.

I am fascinated by the feeling or mood that you create in your works, the way you make a connection with the past and yet at the same time deal with the aesthetic of the present. That is rare in contemporary Chinese art.

p. 27 p.29

Right now I am wondering about future work, what it will be like.

I don’t yet have a sense of that. After I finished shooting Seven Intellectuals [in 2007] there was a change, which included filming actual subjects, such as Blue Kylin shot in Shandong [in 2008], and the dog piece [East of Que Village, 2007], things that were very real.

Filming these works was very helpful. I can no longer make films with that utopian feeling, or with what some have described as a formalist style. I hope that that feeling will subside. How to give thickness to the work is what I will be giving thought to in the future.

There is no real urgency.

Actually, time is running out. My cohort is approaching forty, so the feeling is that there is probably only another ten years in which we have the energy [for this kind of work].

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What is your current status as an artist?

Blue Kylin (Qing qi lin), Part 1, 2008 Sculpture/multiple video installation Production still.

I am an independent artist. But now I am teaching at the academy [in Hangzhou]. I haven’t really thought through what this new status means. I need time to get used to it. There needs to be some readjustment … [Teaching] might provide a good opportunity to breathe. I want to slowly change my way of thinking.

How do you see your work in the context of Chinese and Western art? How would you place it?

That is a difficult question. Perhaps I can answer in this way: the water in the oceans of the world is not categorised as being European or African, so if you are the water, the principle is the same; you cannot really say that you belong to a particular place. It is difficult to say definitively whether you are European or African. These days you can develop in any way you please. One’s sphere of operation is extremely expansive, yet the actual environment in which you live is very small.

This is the same for everyone. So, you respect and trust the moment in which you live and what you have. And you continue working according to your own thoughts and beliefs.

If you are interested in moving forward, you need to be someone who is of the world. And if you want to continue to move forward you need to maintain an interested state of mind. Talking with

friends, it seems that these past few years we have given more thought to the concept of tolerance. How is one to think about all sorts of things? By this I mean tolerance in relation to people, art and life.

You sound as though you are getting old.

[Laughter] I’m not sure why I should be thinking in this way. But it is the way things are.

Will this be manifest in your art?

Maybe. The idea of tolerance also relates to feelings. Some people have interpreted this as being about the importance of learning. There are so many things that you don’t understand. You cannot say that, just because you don’t understand something, it is no good or uninteresting.

Rather, it is that you don’t yet have the knowledge [to appreciate it].

Why is it that so many people use the phrase ‘live long, study long’? We are often functioning in a state of ignorance. It may be that you have done something in a particular area that is interesting, but that is not to say that you have become all-knowing. In this context, tolerance includes an element of self-awareness.

Are you an idealist?

Not really. Who knows? I will take things slowly, and as they come. I am not quite sure how I will proceed with my work.

That is something many of us are unsure of.

That’s right. If we knew, then that would be a problem.

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And if we knew it would not be so interesting.

Yes. But from now on things will be more difficult because of the differential in relation to the courage that comes with youth. Growing up has its own difficulties and requires a different kind of courage.

When you start maybe you only have five dollars. You buy a roll of film, borrow a friend’s camera and go off and take a few shots. But going off and shooting now, the problems that you face are different. Now what you need to do is try and maintain the state of mind you had when you only had five dollars. That is quite difficult.

The interview with Yang Fudong was conducted by Claire Roberts in Shanghai on 28 November 2010, and in a follow-up telephone conversation on 14 January 2011. Translated and edited by Claire Roberts.

Endnotes

1.

See <www.yangfudong.com/info/album.htm>, accessed 12 January 2011. This introduction draws on conversations and interviews with Yang Fudong on 28 November 2010 and 14 January 2011.

2.

Beginning in 1949 a portrait of Mao Zedong was hung above Tian'anmen Gate on special days, such as National Day and Labour Day, and since 1965, six years before Yang Fudong's birth, a portrait of Mao has been installed there permanently.

3. ‘Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge’ (Duan qiao can xue) refers to the historic Duan Family Bridge, located on the eastern end of the Bai Causeway at the West Lake in Hangzhou. Duan is a surname, but a different Chinese character with the same pronunciation means ‘broken’.

While the bridge is thought to date from prior to the seventh century, the poetic scene that it evokes, known as one of ‘Ten Famous Views of the West Lake’, dates from the tenth century, when Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279). The snow-clad landscape and dark lake evoke the beauty of jade and crystal, or a brush-and-ink painting. A tourist plaque erected at the site describes the scene as follows: ‘Standing on top of Baoshi Hill, one can have a bird’s eye view of the beautiful scenery to the south: Bai Causeway lying beneath a blanket of snow looks like a long silver chain across the lake, which seems to break up abruptly when it reaches the end of the causeway, where the dark surface of the bridge emerges from the melting snow, evoking the magical scene of the “bridge breaking as the snow melts”.’ The phrase canxue, or ‘lingering snow’, may also be translated as ‘the dirty snow that refuses to melt’, implying a relentless kind of melancholy. The site is also associated with the ‘Legend of the White Snake’, a popular folktale about a white snake that took the form of a beautiful girl and fell tragically in love with a young man.

4.

The May Fourth Movement arose from student demonstrations in Beijing in May 1919. The students protested against the treatment of China in the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, and the Chinese Government’s weak response.

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The Republican period spans the years 1912 to 1949, after the fall of the Manchu-Qing dynasty in 1911 and prior to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

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No Snow on the Broken Bridge was filmed in ‘Lotus in the Breeze at the Crooked Courtyard’ (Qu Yuan Feng He), the site of a former imperial winery and another of the ‘Ten Famous Views of the West Lake’; Guo’s Villa (Guo Zhuang), a garden villa by the West Lake built in 1851; and the tea fields above Longjing at Jiuxi.

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East of Que Village (Que cun wang dong), 2007 Six-screen B&W video installation, duration 20:50 mins Production still.

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Yang Fudong No Snow on the Broken Bridge

Four robed guests, four ladies in qipao, four young people in suits, and four girls dressed as boys gather at West Lake in early spring.

As winter fades from them, they yearn to catch one last vestige of Broken Bridge: the memory of translucent, languid snow.

Yang Fudong

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Production Credits

Part 3, 2006 35 mm B&W film transferred to DVD, single channel, duration 53 mins

Filmed in Jingning, Zhejiang province

No Snow on the Broken Bridge (Duan qiao wu xue), 2006 Screened in SCAF’s main gallery 35 mm B&W film transferred to DVD, multi-channel, 8 screens, duration 11 mins Filmed at ‘Lotus in the Breeze at the Crooked Courtyard’ (Qu Yuan Feng He) and Guo’s Villa, Hangzhou, and Jiuxi, Zhejiang province Cast: Li Shenghua, Xu Jing, Ni Keyun, Dai Zhe, Zhou Min, Zhou Nuo, Zhao Fangxi, Zhang Yan Director and cinematographer: Yang Fudong Music: Jin Wang

Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Zhu lin qi xian) Screened in SCAF’s theatre annexe Part 1, 2003 35 mm B&W film transferred to DVD, single channel, duration 29:32 mins

Filmed in Huangshan, Anhui province Cast: Xiang Fei, Zhou Yin, Cheng Ran, Xu Jing, Dai Zhe, Chen Zhongzhu, Hu Dongyong Writer: Ling Yunyun Producer: Chen Zhongzhu Cinematographers: Yang Fudong, Liu Shunbing Art director: Zhu Li Editor: Lu Jianjun Music: Jin Wang Sound: Zhang Lei Technical adviser: Xiao Chen Translation: Hang Ming Thanks to Hang Jiaquan, Miya Dudu, Su Yong, Li Jia, Wang Jiwen, Liu Yuan, Su Xun, Liu Weijian Part 2, 2004 35 mm B&W film transferred to DVD, single channel, duration 46:15 mins

Filmed in Shanghai Cast: Xiang Fei, Su Mei, Cheng Ran, Yu Bo, Xu Jing, Dai Zhe, Chen Zhongzhu, with Fan Mingzhu and Xu Zhen Director, writer, producer, cinematographer: Yang Fudong Music: Jin Wang

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Cast: Fu Bingbing, Lv Lv, Cheng Ran, Li Shenghua, Zhou Yi, Xu Jing, Yang Ke Director: Yang Fudong Cinematographer: Xu Wei Art director: Liu Weijian Music: Jin Wang Sound: Huang Xun Make-up: Liu Weijian Still photographer: Zhu Li Part 4, 2007 35 mm B&W film transferred to DVD, single channel, duration 70 mins Filmed in Weihai, Shandong province; Xiangshan and Yushan Island, Zhejiang province Cast: Gao Yanqing, Cheng Ran, Li Shenghua, Xu Jing, Dai Zhe, Huang Lu, Kong Chenliang Director: Yang Fudong Producers: Jin Yu, Yao Peifen Cinematographer: Xu Wei (Assistants: Jia Zhiqing, Liu Shunbing) Art director: Liu Weijian (Assistant: Ye Linghan) Sound: Huang Xun, Dai Dai Log keeper: Wang Jiali Make-up: Sai Sai Still photographer: Zhu Li Part 5, 2007 35 mm B&W film transferred to DVD, single channel, duration 91:41 mins Filmed in Shanghai Cast: Gao Yanqing, Cheng Ran, Li Shenghua, Xu Jing, Dai Zhe, Ni Keyun, Chen Zhongzhu, Su Mei, Huang Lu, Huang Xiaolu, Fu Bingbing, Zhou Yi, Yu Bo, with an appearance by Coco Director: Yang Fudong (Assistant: Bai Ning) Producers: Jin Yu, Yao Peifen, Liu Peng Cinematographer: Wang Yi (Assistants: Wang Jun, Liu Shunbing) Art directors: Ye Linghan, Liu Weijian (Assistant: Wu Houting) Music: Zuoxiao Zhuzhou, Chen Shanni Sound: Huang Xun (Assistant: Wang Guiao) Lighting: Wu Song Log keeper: Wang Jiali Make-up: Lu Song Still photographer: Jiang Yi Thanks to Marian Goodman Gallery, ShanghART Gallery, Marian Goodman, Ling Mingzhu, Lu Rongzhi, Lorenz Helbling, Hu Xiangchen, Zhou Wei, Gao Shimin, Ni Weihua, Qiu Anxiong, Zhou Zixi, Tang Do, Tang Liji

Selected Biography

Solo Exhibitions 2011 Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia 2010 … In the Bamboo Forest …, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest and Other Stories, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece Yang Fudong, Kino Kino, Sandnes, Norway

1971 Born in Beijing, China 1995 Graduated from China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China Lives and works in Shanghai, China

2009 Yang Fudong: The General’s Smile, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan Dawn Mist, Separation Faith, Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China Yang Fudong: East of Que Village, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, US Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Asia Society and Museum, New York, US Yang Fudong: East of Que Village, MuHKA Media, Antwerp, Belgium Sete Intelectuais na Floresta de Bambu (Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest): Yang Fudong, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil Yang Fudong, MCA Denver, Denver, US 2008 Yang Fudong, Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part One, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest I–V, Jarla Partilager, Stockholm, Sweden Yang Fudong: East of Que Village, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai, China China in Transition: Yang Fudong, GLSTRAND, Copenhagen, Denmark Yang Fudong, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain 2007 No Snow on the Broken Bridge, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai, China 2006 Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, US Half Hitching Post, 2577 Longhua Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China No Snow on the Broken Bridge, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, UK 2005 Yang Fudong: Recent Films and Videos, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Yang Fudong: Estranged Paradise, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Yang Fudong, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Torino, Italy Yang Fudong: Don’t Worry, It Will Be Better …, Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria Yang Fudong, Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France 2004 Recent Works by Yang Fudong, Redcat (Roy and Etna Disney Cal Arts Theater), Los Angeles, US 5 Films, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, US

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Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Trans>area, New York, US An Evening with Yang Fudong, MediaScope, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US Yang Fudong, Sketch, London, UK Yang Fudong, Galleria Raucci Santamaria, Napoli, Italy Breeze: Yang Fudong, Galerie Judin Belot, Zurich, Switzerland 2003 S10, Shanghai Siemens Business Communication Systems Ltd, Shanghai, China Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest and Selected Works on Video, The Moore Space, Miami, US Yang Fudong, Buero Friedrich, Berlin, Germany The Paradise [12],The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland Movie night at MK2, MK2 Bibliothèque, Paris, France

Group Exhibitions 2011 Video Series: Video Art from the New China, Getty Center, Los Angeles, US 2010 21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia China Power Station: Part 3, Pinacoteca Agnelli,Torino, Italy Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project, Contemporary Art Department of the National Arts Club, New York, US 8th Shanghai Biennale – Rehearsal, multiple venues, Shanghai, China Useful Life 2010, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai, China Aichi Triennale 2010 – Arts and Cities, Nayabashi, Nagoya, Japan Roundtrip: Beijing – New York Now: Selections from the Dumus Collection, UCCA, Beijing, China 17th Biennale of Sydney – The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia Shanghai: Art of the City, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, US

3rd Guangzhou Triennial – Farewell to Post-colonialism, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China Avant-garde China: Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, National Art Center, Tokyo; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan Our Future: The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation Collection, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China Shanghai Kaleidoscope, Royal Ontario Museum, Ontario, Canada China China China!!! Chinese Contemporary Art Beyond the Global Market, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy Chanel Mobile Art, Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion, Hong Kong 21st Century China. Art between Identity and Transformation, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy Still/Motion – Liquid Crystal Painting, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Osaka; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China, IVAM, Valencia, Spain

2007 La Cina è vicina a cura di Diego Esposito, Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, in collaboration with CIVITA, Naples, Italy China Power Station: Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway The Invention of the Present, Representations of Everyday Life in Chinese Contemporary Photography, Centro Casa Asia–Madrid, Madrid, Spain 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale – Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind, multiple venues, Venice, Italy The Real Thing, Contemporary Art from China, Tate Liverpool, UK 2006 China Contemporary Architecture, Art and Visual Culture, Netherlands Architecture Institute; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen; Netherlands Fotomuseum, the Netherlands 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT5), Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia China Power Station: Part I, Battersea Power Station, London, UK

2009 Breaking Forecast: 8 Key Figures of China's New Generation Artists, UCCA, Beijing, China The State of Things, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium Reversed Images: Representations of Shanghai and Its Contemporary Material Culture, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, US The Symbolic Efficiency of the Frame, Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual, Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art, Tirana, Albania Europalia China – Useful Life, MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium Isabelle Huppert: Woman of Many Faces, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China Shanghai Kino, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation, Contemporary Hong Kong Art Gallery, Hong Kong The China Project – Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia Reversed Images, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, US

2005 Zooming into Focus (NAMOC): Contemporary Chinese Photography and Video from the Haudenschild Collection, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China 1st International Biennial of Contemporary Chinese Art – Montpellier/Chine: MC1 Biennale International, Montpellier, France Le Invasioni Barbariche, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy Emergency Biennale in Chechnya – A Suitcase from Paris to Grozny, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France Videozoom: Chinese Video Artists – The City: Mirage and Reflection, Galeria Sala 1, Centro Internazionale d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale – Parallel Realities: Asian Art Now, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan Ist Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, multiple venues, Moscow, Russia Follow Me! Contemporary Chinese Art at the Threshold of the New Millennium, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2008 Asian Dub Photography, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena, Italy Moscow on the Move, GCCC Offsite Project, Garage, Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia 5th Seoul International Media Art Biennale, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea

2004 Dreaming of the Dragon’s Nation: Contemporary Art from China, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland Shanghai Modern, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany Time Zones: Recent Film and Video,Tate Modern, London, UK 5th Shanghai Biennale – Techniques of the Visible, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China

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4th Busan Biennale – Chasm, Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, Busan, South Korea Light as Fuck! Shanghai Assemblage 2000–2004, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway China Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US Le Moine et le Demon: Art Contemporain Chinois, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France Biennial of Contemporary African Art, multiple venues, Dakar, Senegal Caméra, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania Past in Reverse: Contemporary Art of East Asia, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, US Liverpool Biennial, FACT Liverpool, Liverpool, UK The Chinese: Photography and Video from China, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany

2003 50th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale – Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer, multiple venues, Venice, Italy Camera, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, Paris, France Outlook, Arena – Society for the Advancement of Contemporary Art in Athens, Athens, Greece Cine y casi cine 2003, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain Avicon (Asia Videoart Conference Tokyo), Videoart Center, Tokyo, Japan Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art + Life, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Alors, la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France Prague Biennale 1, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic City-net Asia 2003, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea Zooming into Focus (San Diego), Chinese Contemporary Photography from the Haudenschild Collection, University Gallery of San Diego State University, San Diego, US 2002 1st Guangzhou Triennial – Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art (1990–2000), Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China Documenta11, multiple venues, Kassel, Germany 4th Annual Video Marathon, Art in General, New York, US VideoROM 2.0, Giancarla Zanutti Gallery, Milan, Italy VideoROM, Le Toit du Monde, Centre Multidisciplinaire Pour la Culture Actuelle, Vevey, Switzerland 4th Shanghai Biennale – Urban Creation, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China 2001 Living in Time: 29 Contemporary Artists from China, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany 7th International Istanbul Biennial – Egofugal, multiple venues, Istanbul, Turkey International Triennale of Contemporary Art – Yokohama 2001, multiple venues, Yokohama, Japan Psycho-Bobble, Galleria Raucci / Santamaria, Naples, Italy 1st Biennial of Valencia – Passions, multiple venues, Valencia, Spain 2000 Exit, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK MAAP 2000: Presence and Place, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane, Australia Useful Life, Temporary Space, Dong Daming Rd, Shanghai, China Uncooperative Approach (Fuck Off), Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai, China

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1999 Love – Chinese Contemporary Photography & Video: International Arts Festival.Tachikawa 99, Tachikawa, Japan Post-sense Sensibility: Alien Bodies and Delusion, basement of Shaoyaoju apartment, Beijing, China

Film Festivals 2011 40th International Film Festival, Rotterdam, the Netherlands South Australian Film Festival, Adelaide, Australia 2010 32nd Festival des 3 Continents, Nantes, France 2008 Brisbane International Film Festival, Brisbane, Australia Sundance Film Festival, Utah, US 2007 Shanghype! Portrait of the City from Dawn to Dusk, Artissima Cinema, Turin, Italy 1999 CityZoom, Hanover Film Festival, Hanover, Germany

Selected Bibliography

Krasny, E. & Nierhaus, I. (eds), Urbanografien: Stadforschung in Kunst, Architektur und Theorite, Reimer, Berlin ShanghART & Henkel, We Are Very Close to Chinese Contemporary Art, ShanghART, Shanghai, China Vine, R., New China New Art, Prestel Publishing, New York, US

Monographs Arino, A., Yang Fudong, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain, 2008 Baecker, A., Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest I–V, Jarla Partilager, Stockholm, Sweden, 2008 Beccaria, M., Yang Fudong, Skira Editore, Milan, Italy, 2005 Behrndt, H., China in Transition: Yang Fudong, Kunstforeningen GL Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2008 Chiu, M., Tezuka, M. & Bell, E., Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Asia Society, New York, US, 2009 de Weck Ardalan, Z. (ed.), No Snow on the Broken Bridge: Film and Installations by Yang Fudong, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, UK, 2006 Kafetsi, A., Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest and Other Stories, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece, 2010 Kunsthalle Wien (ed.), Yang Fudong, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, Cologne, Germany, 2005 Shen Qibin, Dawn Mist, Separation Faith, Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China, 2009 Yang Fudong, Sete Intelectuais na Floresta de Bambu (Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest): Yang Fudong, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil, 2009 Yang Fudong, Yang Fudong: The General’s Smile, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan, 2010

Books 2010 Cui Qiao & Chen Yun (eds), Breaking Forecast: 8 Key Figures of China’s New Generation Artists, Timezone 8 Ltd, Beijing, China Lu Peng, The Story of ‘Art’ in China: from Late Qing Dynasty to Present, Peking University Press, Peking, China Lu Peng, Zhu Zhu & Gao Chienhui (eds), Thirty Years of Adventures, Timezone 8 Ltd, Beijing, China Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, TMMP, Tokyo, Japan 2009 Boers, W. (ed.), Touching the Stones: China Kunst Heute, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, Cologne, Germany Comer, S. (ed.), Film and Video Art, Tate Publishing, London, UK Obrist, H. U. & Baecker, A. (eds), Hans Ulrich Obrist: The China Interviews, Office for Discourse Engineering, Beijing, China Zhang Duo, Breaking Forecast: 8 Key Figures of China’s New Generation Artists, Century Publishing Group, Shanghai, China 2008 Albertini, C., Avatars and Antiheroes: A Guide to Contemporary Chinese Artists, Kodansha International Ltd, Tokyo, Japan Holzwarth, H. W. (ed.), Art Now! Vol. 3, Taschen GmbH, Cologne,Germany

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2007 Chang, J. T., Hill, K. & Jiang, J. J. (eds), Burden or Legacy: From the Chinese Cultural Revolution to Contemporary Art, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia Ca’ Giustinian, Pages in the Wind: A Reader. Texts Chosen by the Artists of the 52nd International Art Exhibition, Marsilio Editorio, Venice, Italy Grosenick, U. & Bepler S. (eds), ShanghART 10 Years, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, Cologne, Germany Grosenick, U. & Schubbe, C. H. (eds), China Art Book, DuMont, Cologne, Germany Grosenick, U. & Seelig, T. (eds), Photo Art: Potografie Im 21. Jahrhundert, DuMont, Cologne, Germany Matt, G., Interviews, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany Phaidon Press Editors, Ice Cream, Phaidon Press, London, UK 2006 Quadrio, D., Try Try Look, BizArt Consulting Ltd, Shanghai, China 2005 Gu Zhengqing (ed.), Chinese Artists: Texts and Interviews Chinese Contemporary Art Awards 2004 , Timezone 8 Ltd, Beijing, China 2004 Chienhui Kao, After Origin: Topic on Contemporary Chinese Art in New Age, Artist Publishing, Taipei, Taiwan Gu Zheng, Chinese Avant-Garde Photography Since 1990 , Hunan Meishu Chubanshe, Changsha, China Nuridsany, M. & Domage, M., China Art Now, Flammarion, Paris, France 2003 Acret, S. (ed.), A Strange Heaven: Contemporary Chinese Photography, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong Buci-Glucksmann, C. & Decrop, J., Modernites Chinoises, Skira Editore, Milan, Italy Qiu Zhijie, Series of Critiques on Chinese Contemporary Art: The Scene is Most Important, Chinese People’s University Press, Beijing, China Qiu Zhijie, Series of Critiques on Chinese Contemporary Art: Give Me a Mask, Chinese People’s University Press, Hong Kong 2002 Acret, S. & Hsu, C. (eds), Paris-Pekin, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Chinese Century, Paris, France Qiu Zhijie, Wu Meichun & Lin Wang (eds), Contemporary Art Series: Image and Post-Modernism, Hunan Meishu Chubanshe, Changsha, China 2001 Wu Hung (ed.), Chinese Art at the Crossroads: Between Past and Future, Between East and West, INIVA and New Art Media, Hong Kong 2000 Lu Peng, 90s Art China, Hunan Fine Art Publishing House, Hunan, China

Exhibition Catalogues 2011 Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia 2010 Goetz, I. & Urbaschek, S. (eds), Fast Forward 2: The Power of Motion, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, Germany Knight, M. & Chan, D., Shanghai: Art of the City, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, US Lu Peng, Zhu Zhu & Gao Chienhui (ed.), Reshaping History: Chinart from 2000–2009 , Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House, Chengdu, China 2009 Berkhout, J. & Peters, J. (eds), Rites de Passage, Schunck, Heerlen, the Netherlands Fan Di’an, Tuymans, L. & Ai Weiwei, The State of Things.

Brussels/Beijing, Bozar Expo & Lannoo Publishers, Brussels, Belgium Kvaran, G. B., Ueland, H. B. & Styren, U. (eds), Rotating View #1: Astrup Fearnley Collection, Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway The China Project, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia 2008 Ellis, A. G. (ed.), Shanghai Kaleidoscope, Royal Ontario Museum, Ontario, Canada Luckow, D. & Luyken, G. (eds), Collection Videos & Films, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, Cologne, Germany Maggia, F. & Lazzarini, F. (eds), Asian Dub Photography, Skira Editore, Milan, Italy Mie Prefectural Art Museum; National Museum of Art, Osaka/Tokyo; Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo;The Asahi Shimbun, Still/Motion – Liquid Crystal Painting, The Asahi Shimbun, Osaka, Japan Quadrio, D. & Zhang Wei (eds), China China China!!!

Chinese Contemporary Art Beyond the Global Market, Silvana Ediitoriale Spa, Milano Seiko, K. (ed.), Avant-garde China: Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan Zhu Qi & Morris, M. (eds), Cine XXI Secolo: Arte fra identità e trasformazione, Giunti Editore, Florence, Italy 2007 Groom, S., Smith, K. & Xu Zhen (eds), The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China, Tate Liverpool, UK Kvaran, G. B., Obrist, H. U. & Peyton-Jones, J. (eds), China Power Station: Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway Li Zhenhua, Jinsuk Suh & Sumitomo, F. (eds), Out the Window: Spaces of Distraction, The Japan Foundation Asia Center, Tokyo, Japan Liu Ming & Pi Li (eds), 2nd Documentary Exhibition of Fine Arts. Forms of Concepts: The Reform of Concepts of Chinese Contemporary Art 1987–2007 , Hubei Fine Art Publisher, Wuhan, China Rhee, W., Weibel, P. and Jansen, G. (eds), Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, Germany Storr, R. (ed.), 52nd International Art Exhibition: Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, vols 1 and 2, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy Zhang Zikang & Huang Du (eds), The First Today’s Documents, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China Zhu Qi & Suana Iturrioz, Zhu Yi! Fotografía actual en China: China Contemporary Photography, Artium de Alava, Basque Museum-Center of Contemporary Art & Exhibition Service of the Barcelona Town Hall, Barcelona, Spain

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2006 Gao Shiming & Fong Chao Ng, N. (eds), Micrology: The Politics of Realism. Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, China Academy of Art Press, Hangzhou, China Seear, L. & Raffel, S. (eds), The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, Brisbane, Australia 2005 Backstein, J., Birnbaum, D. & Boubnova, I. (eds), 1 Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art 2005: Dialectics of Hope, Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia Danzker, J. B., Lum, K. & Zheng Shengtian (eds), Shanghai Modern 1919–1945 , Museum Villa Stuck, Munich & Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, Germany Dematté, M. (ed.), Créateures Du Nouveau Monde, Galerie Paul Frèches & Le Petit Camarguais, Paris, France Dreishpoon, D. & Gao Minglu (eds), The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York, US Kataoka, M. & Hu Fang (eds), Follow Me! Chinese Art at the Threshold of the New Millennium, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Qiu Zhijie, Zhu Tong & Zuo Jing (eds), The Second Triennial of Chinese Art: Archaeology of the Future 2005 , Hubei Fine Arts Publishing House, Wuhan, China Rina, I. (ed.), The 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2005 , Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan Shi Yong & Zhou, L. (eds), Zooming into Focus: Contemporary Chinese Photography and Video from the Haudenschild Collection, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai, China 2004 Albertini, A. & Marella, P. (eds), Out of the Red: The New Emerging Generation of Chinese Photographers, Damiani Editore, Bologna, Italy Cao Fei, Chen Xiaoyun, Jiang Zhi & Yang Fudong, Float: A Cine Ladder Project, Cine Ladder Group, Shanghai, China Cheng, A. & Vanderlinden, B. (eds), 2004 Taipei Biennial: Do You Believe in Reality?, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan Dailey, M. (eds), The Hugo Boss Prize 2004 , The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, US Devenport, R. & Leng Lin (eds), Slow Rushes: Takes on the Documentary Sensibility in Moving Images from around Asia and the Pacific, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania Fei Dawei, Feng Boyi & Lu Jie (eds), Le Moine et le Demon: Art Contemporain Chinois, 5 Continents Editions, Milan, Italy Gao Shiming, Lopez, S. & Xu Jiang (eds), Shanghai Biennale 2004: Techniques of the Visible, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China Gu Zhenqing (ed.), Light as Fuck: Shanghai Assemblage 2000–2004 , National Museum of Art, Oslo, Norway Hertz, B., Taehi Kang & Li Xianting (eds), Past in Reverse: Contemporary Art of East Asia, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, US Li Xiangyang (ed.), Dreaming of the Dragon’s Nation: Contemporary Art Exhibition from China, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China & Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland Li Zhenhua, Jinsuk Suh & Sumitomo, F. (eds), Out the Window: Spaces of Distraction (Korea), The Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan Morgan, J. & Muir, G., Time Zones: Recent Film and Video, Tate Publishing, London, UK Perier, H. (ed.), Chine, Le Corps Partout (China, the Body Everywhere?), Indigene Editions, Montpellier, France

Wu Hung & Phillips, C., Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, Smart Museum of Art at University of Chicago, Chicago, US; International Center of Photography, New York, US; Steidl Publishers, Gottingen, Germany Suchen Hsieh (ed.), Fiction. Love: Ultra New Visions in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan Taeman Choi, Sunghuhn Lee & Manu Park (eds), Busan Biennale 2004: Chasm, Busan Biennale Organising Committee, Busan, South Korea 2003 Art Seasons Gallery, China ConTempo II 2003: Urban Illusions and Perceptions, ASG, Singapore Brewinska, M., Gao Minglu & Staniszkis, J. (eds), New Zone Chinese Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland Clark, J., Fan Di’an & Hou Hanru (eds), Alors, la Chine?, Editions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, France de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, A. (ed.), Promenade Edifiante et Curieuse au Pavillon des Images, Centre Photographique d'Ile-de France, Paris, France Elliott, D. (ed.), Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art + Life, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Fan Di’an, Huang Du & Wang Yong (eds), Synthi-Scapes: 50th Venice Biennale 2003, Chinese Pavilion, China International Exhibition Agency, Beijing & Guandong Museum of Art, Guandong, China Ha Chong-hyun (ed.), City_net Asia 2003, Lee Myung-bak, Seoul, South Korea, 2003 Marella, P. & Jordan, F. (eds), China Art Now: Out of the Red, Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy Meseguer, S., Gutierrez, L. & Hou Hanru (eds), Camera: Chang Yungho, Wang Jianwei, Yang Fudong, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France Roces, M. P. (ed.), Translating Cultures: Site + Sight, Earl Lu Gallery, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore Video Art Foundation, 25 hrs: International Video Art Show, VAF (Spain), Barcelona, Spain Zhang Li (ed.), Lifetime, BTAP, Beijing, China 2002 Enwexor, Okwui, Documenta11: The Short Guide, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, Germany Wu Hung (ed.), The First Guangzhou Triennial – Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art (1990–2000), Macao Publishing House, Macao Xu Jiang & Li Xiangyang (eds), Shanghai Biennale 2002: Urban Creation, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China 2001 Ano, B., Anson, L. M., Bonito Oliva, A. (eds), The 1st Valencia Biennial: Communication between the Arts, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, Spain Chen Xiaoyun, Tong Biao, Qiu Zhijie & Jiang Zhi (eds), Mantic Ecstasy: Digital Image and Video Art, Impression Gallery, Hangzhou; Bizart, Shanghai; Loft New Medium Art Center, Beijing, China Fan Di’an, Knapstein, G. & Yang, M. K. (eds), Living in Time: 29 Zeitgenossische Kunstler aus China, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany Kaori, M. & Yutaka, M. (eds), Yokohama 2001: International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Organising Committee for Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, Japan Karagoz, H. (eds), Egofugal: 7th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Istanbul, Turkey

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2000 Chen Xiaoyun, Useful Life, ddm, Shanghai, China Hua Tianxue, Ai Weiwei & Feng Boyi (eds), Fuck Off, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai, China Zhou Zixi (ed.), Out of Desire: Painting Exhibition of Six Shanghai Young Artists, Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai, China 1999 Brandt, A. T., Xu Zhen & Yang Zhenzhong (eds), Art for Sale, Shanghai Plaza, Shanghai, China Qiu Zhijie & Wu Meichun, Post-sense Sensibility, Alien Bodies & Delusion, independent publication, Beijing, China Toshio Shimizu & Zhang Li (eds), Love: Chinese Contemporary Photography & Video/International Arts Festival, Tachikawa 99 , Organizing Committee of International Arts Festival, Tachikawa, Japan

Articles and Reviews 2007 ‘Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge’, Art Asia Pacific, no. 52, March/April 2006 Beccaria, M., Hasegawa, Y. & Zhang Wei, ‘Yang Fudong’, Parkett, no. 76, May Kröner, M., ‘Yang Fudong: in the intermediate zone of the times’, Kunstforum, vol. 183 Pi Li, ‘Yang Fudong: dream-like reality’, Art iT, no. 10, winter/spring Yukiko, H., ‘Interview with Yang Fudong’, Art iT, no. 10, winter/spring 2005 Hasegawa, Y., ‘Yang Fudong’, Flash Art, no. 241, March/ April 2004 Merewether, C., ‘The long striptease: desiring emancipation’, Parachute 114 – Shanghai, June Zhang Yaxuan, ‘An interview with Yang Fudong: the uncertain feeling. An Estranged Paradise’, Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, vol. 3, no. 3 2003 Henry, G., ‘Strange skies’, Paroles, no. 190 Tatehata, A., ‘Yang Fudong’, Art Asia Pacific, vol. 37, winter

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

Contributors

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) was established in April 2008 as a not-for-profit organisation to champion research, education and exhibitions of significant and innovative contemporary art from Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. SCAF works closely with artists in commissioning new work and developing exhibitions that energise and respond to the gallery’s four-part complex comprising a large exhibition area, mini ‘out-site’ space, versatile theatre annexe and Zen garden. Extensive projects are developed through partnerships with public art institutions at a regional, state and national level while broad public engagement with contemporary art is fostered through publishing and forum programmes. In addition, Sherman Visual Arts Residency (SVAR), located directly across the road from the gallery, offers a supportive environment and accommodation for visiting artists, filmmakers, architects, writers, curators and scholars. The experience of developing Sherman Galleries (1986–2007) as a respected commercial and educational enterprise within the international art world underpins the Foundation at both a conceptual and practical level. Dr Gene Sherman AM, SCAF Chairman and Executive Director, has drawn on her extensive international networks to establish the Foundation, and initiates and guides its activities in collaboration with an advisory board of respected peers: Andrew Cameron, Doug Hall AM, John Kaldor AM, Akira Nakayama, Tomoko Nakayama, Dr Claire Roberts and Michael Whitworth.

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Dr Gene Sherman AM is Chair and Executive Director of Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. She has a specialised knowledge of art, literary theory and French and English literature and spent seventeen years teaching, researching and lecturing at secondary and tertiary levels. As Director of Sherman Galleries (1986–2007) she initiated, negotiated and organised twelve to seventeen exhibitions annually, as well as regional and national touring exhibitions within Australia, and international touring exhibitions through the Asia-Pacific region. Gene and Brian Sherman sponsored a Master of Fine Arts Administration student at the College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales (1997–2007), a studio at Bundanon and a contemporary Australian art-research room at the Schaeffer Fine Arts Library, The University of Sydney.

Dr Sherman is currently on the Board of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, and the Art & Australia Advisory Board. In 2003 the French Government honoured Dr Sherman with the award of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her contribution to culture. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from The University of Sydney in 2008 and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2010.

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Dr Claire Roberts is an historian of Chinese art and a curator. She is currently a Coordinate Research Scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University, and a Research Fellow at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.

She was a Research Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University 2009–10 and Senior Curator of Asian Arts at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 1988–2010. Claire studied at the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute, 1978–79, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 1979–81. She has a Master of Arts from the University of Melbourne. Her PhD, undertaken at ANU, focused on the work of modern Chinese brushand-ink painter Huang Binhong (1865–1955). Claire has published widely on Asian art and curated numerous exhibitions. Her most recent publications are Friendship in Art: Fou Lei and Huang Binhong, 2010, Other Histories: Guan Wei’s Fable for a Contemporary World, 2008, and The Great Wall of China, 2006. Her forthcoming book is titled Photography and China.

Acknowledgements

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation thanks Yang Fudong for his commitment to this project and Claire Roberts for her insightful and illuminating interview with the artist.

Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation 18 March – 4 June 2011 Published by Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

We are grateful to Lorenz Helbling and Jin Sun at ShangART Gallery for their assistance and support.

Sincere thanks to Professor Geremie R. Barmé, Caroline Baum, Margaret Throsby and Anna Waldmann for their contribution to this project.

Thank you to Johnnie Walker, A.R.T., Tokyo, for his wise and sensitive advice.

Heartfelt thanks as always to Brian Sherman for his unwavering support for SCAF’s activities.

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation 16–20 Goodhope Street Paddington NSW 2021 ABN 25 122 280 200 www.sherman-scaf.org.au

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation Chairman, Executive Director Dr Gene Sherman AM Associate Director Amanda Henry General Manager – Artistic and Educational Programmes Dolla S. Merrillees Programmes Coordinator, Executive Assistant to Gene Sherman Laura Brandon Communications and Events Coordinator Aaron de Souza Exhibition and Catalogue Management Dolla S. Merrillees and Amanda Henry

© Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation Copyright in the essays is held by the authors. Copyright in the images is held by the artist.

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Title: Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge / prepared by Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation ISBN: 9780980776300 (pbk) Subjects: Yang, Fudong–Exhibitions.

Video art–China–Exhibitions.

Author: Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation Other Authors/Contributors: Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation Dewey Number: 778.50951

Advisory Board Andrew Cameron, Doug Hall AM, John Kaldor AM, Akira Nakayama, Tomoko Nakayama, Dr Claire Roberts, Michael Whitworth National and International Art Adviser Anna Waldmann Communications Adviser Michael Young Design Mark Gowing Design Editor Fiona Egan

Typeset in Monotype Grotesque Printed in Australia by Ligare Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation is a not-forprofit organisation providing a platform for innovative visual artists primarily from Asia, Australia and the Pacific Rim. All donations over $2 are tax deductible and will support our exhibition, educational, public and artist-in residence programmes.

Page 31: Yang Fudong quote from <www.mariangoodman. com/exhibitions/2006-09-07_yang-fudong/>, accessed 30 January 2011.

Page 140: Photograph of SCAF by Paul Green.

Page 141: Photograph of Gene Sherman by James Mills.

Photograph of Claire Roberts by Stephanie B. Mitchell.

All production stills and installation photographs

by Yang Fudong.

All images courtesy the artist, ShangART Gallery, Shanghai, and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris.

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