This exhibition is about the explorations of contemporary artist Yang Na. Her works grow in Plato's chroa, becoming more sensible. She records every detail of perception with abundant imagination and symbol, transforming the image into Jupiter's bow of desire and arrow, ready to be unleashed anytime. This arrow with syrup flavor is sweet, yet filled with a sensitive and self-conceited image inside.
Her works depict the external relationship between nature and humans as well as rich internal representation as well. Is desire the syndrome of image-making? Concerning the allure of drawing, W.J.T.Mitchell stated, "Art refuses to accept this prohibition, insisting on depicting desire not just as the desirable object, the beautiful, shapely or attractive form, but also as the force field, the face of desire itself, its scenes, figures, its forms and flows". What we first see while gazing at the paintings is the visionary image rather than desire. Besides, the image links desire. Gazing is bidirectional, never avoiding merging the realities of illusion and metaphor. The gaze of the image and the surrounding nature attract the audience to walk into a peaceful storm.
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus had one of his eyes removed during a battle with Seth, and in the subsequent narrative "the Eye of Horus" appears as "Wedjat Eye", which means the sacred Eye. This systematic image had a long-lasting impact on the history of ancient Egypt, and the symbolic eye provides us with an amplitude of information. The sense of gaze creates the eyes in Yang Na's paintings. When you look long into the eyes, the eyes look into you. The distance between us and the eyes may disappear or increase while looking, however, we still need to respond to them with attention. Since the eye guides desire, we can only find out where our attention goes in this mutual interaction.
According to Vandana Shiva, females have a unique connection with the environment in daily life, but it has been neglected all along. Ignoring one group's privilege over another group is never an isolated condition. Instead, it happens in a net where everything is related, like the roots of vegetation. Self/Ego in the environment is the other, thus the group loses its solid state. The fluid group experiences change along with emotional reality, the images and the numerous currents portrayed by the artist reflect communal changes.
The body needs re-naturalization. It doubly means that we are open-minded in the face of the changes in history and culture, and the portrayal of females needs to become a symbolic representation together with the feminine nature to resist the stereotyped image. As Jacques Lacan's theory of symbols suggests, unconsciousness is born from the suppression of desire, therefore, the symbol has its context in the peculiar language structure of unconsciousness. Yang Na creates a more friendly reality, a space that encourages us to express our emotions and desires out loud. Behind her dreamy symbol is a firm position, and a state of unlimited expression.
Her solo exhibition will open the door to a brand new understanding of her artistic creation. The fragments of the Eye of Horus in real life refer to different sensory organs, and in terms of form, they are like fraction numbers that add up to one. Bridging alienation and difference in an atmosphere detached from reality, she creates a dreamlike magnetic field full of relaxed gravity. The audience who gazes at the images is enveloped in gravity, and this feeling is suitable not only for real self-reflection but also, as the artist wishes, for the mutual love and hearts of everybody.
Artist
Yang Na
Yang Na graduated from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute affiliated high school in 2002, and graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute with bachelor’s degree in 2006, and graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute with master’s degree in 2010. Now she lives and works in Beijing.
Her solo exhibitions includes “Small World”(Taipei International Art Expo, Taipei, China, 2020), “Night Stroll in the Dense Forest” (Taipei international Art Expo, Taipei, China, 2019), “Yang Na’s Yang Na” (Manet Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2016), “Lonely Mountain - Yang Na’s Surrealism”, HCS Art Foundation, Taipei, China, 2015), “Annual of Men and Beasts” (Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2014), “Raging Waves” (Museum of Humanities and Medicine, Taipei, China,2013), “Wu.Ti” (Contemporary Art Museum, Taipei, China, 2010), “Supple Tension” (Seasons Art Center, Zurich, Switzerland, 2009).