Kai-Oi Jay Yung Artist Statement

8/2/2019 Kai-Oi Jay Yung Artist Statement

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ARTIST STATEMENT

I am interested in conflict sites, ruptures in our psychogenic make-up and how our

suffering and conflict exacerbates and manifests in our daily living. In editing andmaking, I can dissect and reassemble meaning, introduce new characters and

empower others with narratives to manipulate their own endings, realities and truths.This way I can offer alternative belief systems to exercise our fears, desires and lifes

complexities in relation to our migratory trajectories and national identity.OnAmongst Dark Trees, A Clearing. Grundy Art Gallery, 2013

From intensive research, my practice opens into chance and investigatory process-led activity, with people central to my practice- their voices, histories, presence andinteraction are at once the source material and the participants of my digitised, and

architectural forms that converge lo-fi craft, movement and technology. My objects,environments and platforms for interaction span drawings, sculpture, video

installation to live performance, confronting viewer with a deep rooted experientialfractionary collapse of the psychological and physiological self. I seek to trigger andchannel an intuitive process of unblocking, clearing and empowerment of theconscious and political self towards change and alternate perspectives of ourmigratory histories and socio-politico hierarchical structures; a re-configuration of

how we may co-exist and co-create.

Interweaving dark humour and play, my works trigger sensorial memories and

experiences that pinpoint, unlock and expulse inner psychological blockages andspiritual dilemmas in a bid to precipitate such change. My narratives, dialogicalplatforms and multi-sensory interventions are propelled by a desire to interpretpersonal behaviour and truths, to consider our universal search for contentmentthrough reinterpreting and investigating belief systems, forms and their culturalformers and ways of living into the folding rhizome.

Inherent to my process is catalysing involvement of others- collaborations withmeditation savants, Laban dance choreographers, marine biologists, architects,

engineers, sinfonetti, bus driversall feed into my process of amassing and distillingdata, personal stories and discarded materials- to engage and stimulate the senses.My recent solo,Amongst Dark Trees, A Clearing, uncovered issues of suffering and

loss. The self-hypnosis drawing seriesAuto-Psychometric Suffering Devices, asound responsive multi-coloured light installation Passings,and hand-sewn craft

works Mottos In Threadprogress my ongoing investigations into examining individualand collective psychological and physiological experience of identity. Across fourcontrasting galleries and four video works, we encounter voices of conflict andresolution, from excessive compulsive hoarder to trauma psychologists inA Plan For

Nigel, to a satirical stand up comedian in You Dont Actually Die. In the expansiveclearing of the fourth gallery, 7Circlesplayed intermittently; a collective sound piececomposed from public recordings sent to me of the sanscrit chakras sounds- ohm,

yam, ram, la... The public interplays with this sound piece through a mic that createsa live harmonic mantra that pervades the gallery and simultaneously activates avisual constellation of neon-coloured light rays, unexpectedly immersing fellowviewers in ambient warm hues. The exhibition was accompanied by a series of talks,debates and workshops with psychologists, and an essay On Suffering with critical

theorist Anothony T. Morgan.

The exploration of conflict sites within the body was further explored in ShadowDance, my transformation of the Bluecoat Gallery into a dance studio. I invited

practioners across Ashatanga Yoga to Japanese Butoh, physical theatre and electricboogaloo and breaking to teach me their various dedicated rigorous methodologies


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and practices. In the second week, this was extended to public participation. Throughintimate and small actions, Shadow Dance sought to offer connections in externalphysical movement and internal thought processes and unlock the motivations linking

emotion, memory to our outward actions. It was also an analytical attempt to locatethe our biomechanical faculties in response to cerebral processes and awareness of

the bodily self in relation to our dynamic environments and relations to others.

My large-scale exhibition at Cornerhouse, Interval; A Narrative Psychosis was an

eleven channel video installation transforming the gallery into a labyrinthinearchitectural site comprising an oversized double-barrelled rifle, handcraft elementsand a framed monochrome photographic series. The culmination of a two-yearinvestigatory trajectory across Hong Kong to California, exploring vistas from Mojavedessert to the South China Sea, I interviewed Speilbergs scriptwriter to former

Alcatraz prisoner and physiognomists to LA gang members and a feng shui expert.The footage was edited into narratives plotting tightly woven parallels crossing fiction

to documentary.

My video works span moving image and performance to documentary, extendingmyth into reality through my incantation of multiple identities and re-constructednarratives. Often, I deploy my body in performance to inhabit and incarnate a

locations story, such as nineteenth century occult double-barrelled rifle heiressSarah Winchester and her Mystery Houseand Jane Austen in the cinematic piece

Amnesia; A Rehearsal. The result is a hybridising of fractious identities andtransposing local stories across global expanses into cohesive physical, sonic andtraced forms. Madly Into Nightcrosses schizophrenic personages of Ludwig II with aholocaust love story, whilst The Roomreveals the superstitious site itself. I alsoexplore physical endurance, invokingjouissancein nine-hour performance

Trampoline, whilst I blur military commander and savant in my live performanceMilitary Craftat Guangzhou Live. Addressing brutality, military regimes and violence

through my manipulation of props- an I Ching umbrella- and propensity to connectwith human gestures, my actions invited large audience interaction whilst invokingintimate, subtle and memorable interchanges through tension and humour andconfounding collective expectations. Military Craftcontinues its progression, II sawits incarnation at Golden Thread Gallery opening the group show Imagined

Communities, and extended my examination of identity and conflict to NorthernIreland. For Gestalt, my performance at Calvert 22, London considered the ideology

of Marxist Socialism and involved volunteers that entered the live performance thattook place at the gallery in a closed environment. Revolving around Milena Dravicsspeech from Dusan Makavejevsfilm Mysteries of the Organism, my subsequentactions and interactions with participants manifest struggle in my attempt totransgress blockage through manipulating our language system to thwart and

reconvene a possible alternative. Issues of power and justice become central to mygestures and engagements and the three part movements of this work.

Using easily discarded and forgotten materials, from highland cow hair to fragilefound materials and throwaway conversations are embedded into ceramic or fabric

sculptures to conjure biomorphic organic creatures that take on their own personas,such as the disturbed, yet alluring rag clothed clown-dog Joker, whilst social media

text becomes an enforcement of the personal/political in my Libyan uprising text IHave A Story,Abrons Arts Centre, NYC. Even humble holey sock is a weapon foraddressing our geopolitical alliances and depletion of scant resources inSockExchange. Meanwhile, interviews with French Tarot master Phillipe Camoine,Interview with a Tarot Master prompts me to generate my own rules and

regulations in a one off performance inviting audience to enter into a highly intimateexchange of trust and reciprocation- I become their charlatan spiritual seer/savant.


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My process converges instinct, in-depth pre-arranged research alongside serendipityas divining rod. Unlocking collective psyches, my work teases and expulses oursubmerged fears and desires, in the bid to catalyse healing of our complex global

histories in relation to each other.

Alongside discarded physical material, tapping into forgotten sound and samplinghidden audio plays an important role in my multifarious works- as accompanyingmoving image scores or cadence for my live performances. My collaboration with

Winchester Sinfonia to Chinese opera singers question syncopation between visualand sound, and raise awareness of our synaesthetic capacities. Paradise; Wildflower

dislocates an Indian dancers choreographed movement from gospel, dance andAfrican beat to question exoticism, whilst my animation After (The World), reveals myhand drawn stop frame in synchronization with electronic ambience, whilst the massparticipatory 7 Circles orchestrated a public opera across ages, tones andgeographies into the gallery space.

Residencies are core to my practice; physical displacement triggers my practice with

new methodologies, contexts and audiences; invaluable laboratories to cross-pollinate art in unfamiliar territories. My residency at La Friche La Belle de Mai,Marseille saw me deploying tarot deck to divine Marseille port in flux. British Councilinvitation to Libya was spent working closely with locals to initiate a forum fordialogue from all sides. Meanwhile, I addressed holocaust atrocities in Checkpointwhere I slapped and kissed Berlin locals from an old Coldstore warehouse inKreuzberg according to my devised official procedures. This has elaborately evolved

into commentary and game-play engagement of others based on chance yet conciseinterpretation of our political structures in live performances such as The System IsDone, Lets Start Again, Hong Kong. During my invitation to Nanling, China withGrizedale Arts & Vitamin Creative Space I considered the extent of socially engagedpractice and its role in eco-tourist village China and its rapid advance and

industrialisation with the legacy of art as social vehicle and shifting existing socio-economic strata. Fostering relationships with two local small family businesses, I

facilitated their participation engendering confidence and empowering them with trustin their own creativity through a series of craft related products in relation to theinhabitants personal livelihood. The objects and two documentaries were sold at thevillage market event, raising demand and income for the family businesses, whilstexisting as art products at Arnolfini, Far Westexhibition and Grizedales artcollection.

My role as education and inclusion officer for diverse organisations include Tate,Manchester Art Gallery, Liverpool Biennial and Cornerhouse demonstrating myimportance in learning and forge relations with others through my capacity to devise

and facilitate quality, innovative learning approaches that offer participants multipleperspectives and ways to engage with art and reap its benefits. My course facilitationand devisal includes The Art of Social Engagement and Contemporary Chinese Artand Globalisation, bringing skills and individuals together- involving curators, artists

and multiple venues, from Lesley Young, Jeremy Deller, Artur Zmijewski to ShanghaiMuseum. From Tate Treasuresto lecturing at Liverpool John Moores to LincolnUniversity and Hong Kong City University, I seek to instigate cross-sector discursive

forums to extend learning and skills for all.

Documents

Kai-Oi Jay Yung Artist Statement