Yang Yongliang (*1980)

Die Arbeiten des Shanghaiers Yang Yong Liangs muten auf den ersten Blick wie traditionelle chinesische Tuschezeichnungen an. Sie sind allerdings aus Motiven urbaner Abrisslandschaften oder Hochhausansichten gegenwärtiger chinesischer Städte gestaltet. –––>

Yang Yongliang: I don’t play with art, as it is not my game. I don’t use art, as it is not for my emotional release. I’m creating art works. In the first creation of Phantom Landscape I used ‘Mountain Water’ a symbolic element of China. This title includes two things literally: one is the City I live in, the other Mountain Water (meaning Landscape in Chinese). City is the place I inhabit, a place growing with me and which contains my memories. A mirage or Phantom (City) is a desired state or environment, which I have only imagined. Mountain Water (Landscape) is the imitation of the traditional art from my childhood as well as the art form that is disappearing with the city and I growing. The birth of Phantom Landscape does not come up by accident. City and Landscape, I love them and hate them at the same time. I love the familiarity of the city, more so to hate it growing too fast and invading everything around at an unexpected speed. I love the depth and inclusiveness of traditional Chinese Art, more so to hate its non-progress attitude. I have input this complex feeling to my blood and let it out to form my art works. Ancient Chinese expressed their appreciation of nature and feeling for it by painting the Landscape. In contrast, I make my Landscape to criticize the realities in my eyes.