2024-03-27 02:03:45
Yang Xiaofang is currently implementing a disability art residency program with two friends, choosing a location in a rural area.
[Yahoo News Report]Among the exhibits at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong exhibition, there are works by local artist Yang Xiaofang that use the body as the theme of creation and use their feet to twist the shape of the installation. Having lost her arms, she came to Hong Kong from the Mainland to study and be exposed to art. She relies on continuous physical exercise and uses her body as a creative medium to express her thoughts. She hopes that this exhibition titled “Exploration” will help the audience find resonance and listen to their own inner voices.
Text: HT
Photo: CCC, provided by interviewee
Feel the presence of the body: understand it, feel it
“Exploration” is located at the Para Site booth. “Para Site Art Space” has provided exhibition opportunities for local emerging artists at Art Basel every year since 2013. This year, it will display Yang Xiaofang’s large-scale “Heart” installation and a series of paintings. Featuring live performances.
Xiaofang, 35, graduated from the Hong Kong Academy of Art and studied the Bachelor of Arts program jointly offered by the school and RMIT University in Australia, majoring in painting. During her schooling, she often inadvertently used the body as the theme of her creations. Later she discovered: “It’s because I don’t feel the existence of my body very well, so I want to understand it, I want to feel it.” The design of this exhibition leads the audience from the outside of the installation to the inside, experiencing multiple sensory experiences and allowing the inner voice to be heard.
The 2024 Art Basel Hong Kong exhibition includes Yang Xiaofang’s exhibition titled “Exploration”. (Photo provided by Yang Xiaofang; Photography: Studio Lights On)
The exhibition includes a 2-meter-high installation made of rubber hoses, which cannot be completed by Xiaofang alone. She can go to Sham Shui Po to buy materials on her own, but she must think clearly in advance what to buy and what kind of bag to bring. Every time she does something, she pushes the feasibility to more than 50% before trying it; she can use her feet to twist out of her mind. But at the same time, I accept that there are things I can’t do. For example, I can’t put the hose on a 2-meter-high bracket, so I have to ask others for help.
This exhibition will also feature Xiao Fang’s “Untitled IIIIIIIII”. (Photo provided by Yang Xiaofang; Photography: Studio Lights On)
9-year-old lost both arms due to electric shock, Hong Kong people’s different eyes
Xiaofang was born in 1989 in a rural family in Guangdong Province. When she was nine years old, a high-voltage wire fell to the ground near her home. She picked it up without knowing where it was. The wire was made of raw materials and was not covered with protective tape. Xiaofang was immediately electrocuted and sent to the hospital. During her two months in the hospital, she had to undergo surgeries every week to remove dead tissue from the wound. The cost of the surgeries depleted the family’s savings, and her father even thought regarding giving up on Xiaofang.
After being discharged from the hospital, Xiaofang learned to use her feet to complete major and minor movements in daily life, and also secretly helped with housework. In 2003, she was approved for a one-way permit to Hong Kong and felt that people in this city looked at her differently and there was no discrimination like in mainland China. She successfully completed primary and secondary school at the Hong Kong Red Cross Princess Alexa School. On the way, she met painting teacher Chen Hui, who opened the door to artistic creation.
(Left) Xiaofang’s first family photo following the accident, including her mother, brother and sister; (right) Xiaofang and her pet dog Miaomiao. The picture is reproduced from Xiaofang’s autobiography “Enough to Be Proud” published in 2014
Xiaofang feels lucky to have met a very good dean at the art college. During the interview that year, the dean was worried regarding the lack of hardware facilities in the college, but Xiaofang said that she knew that the environment would not be able to cooperate with her, but she might adapt to the environment. “I think the dean’s trust in me is a great encouragement to me. He might have many reasons to push me away, but he has none.” During her schooling, Xiaofang always did not want to slow down the progress of her classmates, such as It was difficult to learn how to roll film in a black room by hand, so she started to practice rolling film with her feet early during the summer vacation.
Opening up perception and utilizing the body for live performance
Before and following graduation in 2017, she came into contact with some live performance works and body exercises, and began to explore her own body. Introduced by a friend, I went to Taiwan in 2018 to “train my body” intensively with a pool teacher (Lin Yanzhen). “I will slowly eliminate some turbid things every day, so that my body will be cleaner and it will be easier to feel the body.” This body, open up some senses.” After a few months, she felt that the most obvious change was the adjustment of the perspiration system. Most people perspire in the armpits, back, and behind the ears, but Xiaofang’s back was damaged due to surgery and she never knew how to perspire. She communicates with the body and tells the body to stop remembering the previous path of perspiration and find another way. “In the last month, I started to notice sweating. I noticed sweating in other places, and the sweating was very sharp, such as on the neck, head, and then on the calves. You know how to tie the calves well is difficult first. Sweating.”
After opening up the body’s perception, Xiaofang continued to use the body as a medium to create works, and gradually added live performance works in addition to mixed media. For example, in 2021’s “I’m Fine”, she used her body to continuously rub once morest a piece of ice hidden with red dragon fruit, and used her body heat to melt the ice. Although the action seemed painful to the audience, she actually did not feel much pain.
In 2021’s “I’m Fine”, she used her body to constantly rub once morest a piece of ice hiding a red dragon fruit, using her body temperature to melt the ice to test the tolerance of the human body. What seemed like a painful movement from the audience’s perspective, actually didn’t cause much pain to her. Photo by Gustav Lindgren
The 2022 work “The Squirm” is a 45-minute live performance created with rat glue.
Xiaofang has been engaged in art creation for more than ten years, but she still needs part-time jobs to make ends meet, usually giving lectures in schools and teaching art workshops. She is self-employed and feels that her disability status has not brought her many obstacles. However, she knows that many people with disabilities face many difficulties in the workplace. She and two friends are preparing for the “Crip Art Residency” program, which has just ended its recruitment. The two selected artists with disabilities and one artist without disabilities will stay in Hong Kong for one month to hold lectures, workshops and exhibitions.
In the space where disabled art resides, the chairs and sofas are relatively short. Xiaofang is sitting on a movable cushion.
Xiaofang was selected as one of the “Top Ten Most Inspiring People in Hong Kong” in 2011. In 2014, she published her autobiography “To Be Proud”. The picture shows the cover of the book.
Art Basel Yang Xiaofang’s solo exhibition “Exploration”
Date: March 26-30
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center (1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island)
Live performance: March 29 (Friday) at 3 p.m.
March 26 (Tuesday) 12 noon to 2 pm, 4 to 7 pm
March 27 (Wednesday) 12 noon to 3 pm, 5 to 7 pm
March 29 (Friday) 3 to 7 pm
March 30 (Saturday) 3 to 7 pm
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