News
UK<>China Artist Residency, 9th August – 19th September 2019
As part of our ongoing partnerships with arts organisations across China we have been working with Xu Artspace in Chongqing, since 2008, to support and offer residency/exhibition/workshop opportunities for artists, curators and artsworkers in the UK and China. Our recent artist in residence awardee, YangHong, arrived in Derby in August 2019 for an artist residency at QUAD. He stayed for six weeks carrying out research, producing new work and having time to reflect on his practice in a new environment. This residency programme is part of an ongoing annual exchange organised by QUAD and Tank Loft, Sichuan Fine Art Institute / 501 Xu Artspace in Chongqing where artists from the UK and China are supported to visit each other for research residencies.
YangHong (b.1984) is an artist from Chongqing, China. He works as a Lecturer in the Sculpture Department of the School of Fine Art in Southwest University of China. Whilst YangHong was in residence, he focussed on the idea of “individual withdrawal and travel in specific fields”. These topics were considered through photography, performance, sculpture and drawing.
YangHong visited a number of cities and national parks, conducted studio visits with local artists and curators and created many artworks whilst he was in Derby. For example, he carried out a large number of performative walks, which he recorded through a handheld camera. For his work “Birthmark” (2019), he walked 25 km each day for five days and held his hand against his face – almost comforting himself, whilst the sun burnt the skin around his hand. These recordings were edited into a moving image work that was presented, alongside other works, at his open studio exhibition.
He also produced a large number or large line drawings, using a marker pen and Chinese rice paper. For these drawings YangHong drew a straight line in the middle of the sheet and then tried to draw the same line beneath this line. YangHong would do this for long periods of time and created drawings which marked how his body moved, almost acting as a fingerprint of his practice – showing his identity through his work.
At the end of YangHong’s residency, he had a public showcase in the form of an open studio exhibition. For this day-long event, he shared how he made his artwork and information about his practice with visitors. Those who came along also engaged in a line drawing activity, learning about YangHong’s practice and creating their own artwork using a marker pen and Chinese rice paper.
It has been a wonderful experience having YangHong in residence at QUAD. We look forward to seeing how his work develops and introducing him to our UK based artist in residence, Patrick Waterhouse who will be travelling to Chongqinq in October 2019 for a six-week residency.
QUAD is a registered charity.