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Join exhibition artist Xiao Yuhan as part of our series of artist talks and performances in response to Objects of the Misanthropocene.
From the gallows humour in hockey's toothless grins to the cartoonish effect in the CGI of dissolving tablets in vitamin commercials, Xiao Yuhan's current practice investigates the conceptualisation of health and illness enchanted by capitalist devices: the visual rhetoric, the aesthetic deliberation, the gimmick.
By schematizing a nexus of manufactured, natural, and crafted materials, e.g. aeration stone, shark teeth, and Kaiju Skin*, Xiao makes three-dimensional works along with drawings to generate familiar shapes, diagrams, and imageries that construct our everyday perceptions. Informed by both personal experiences and collected anecdotes, his works demonstrate the tragicomic subordination of humans to the ultimate cure, fitness, and life extension in an often dichotomous pursuit of science/quackery, love/violence, stoicism/self-indulgence.
*Kaiju Skin is a self-developed material made out of latex balloons and duct tapes to automatically form organic shapes and irregular textures mimicking kaiju. Kaiju is a Japanese term originated from The Classic of Mountains and Seas (a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts) and can be roughly translated to 'giant and strange monster'. It also refers to the sub-genre of tokusatsu films and TV featuring live action actors in kaiju costumes rampaging over a miniature metropolis.
Join exhibition artist Xiao Yuhan as part of our series of artist talks and performances in response to Objects of the Misanthropocene.
From the gallows humour in hockey's toothless grins to the cartoonish effect in the CGI of dissolving tablets in vitamin commercials, Xiao Yuhan's current practice investigates the conceptualisation of health and illness enchanted by capitalist devices: the visual rhetoric, the aesthetic deliberation, the gimmick.
By schematizing a nexus of manufactured, natural, and crafted materials, e.g. aeration stone, shark teeth, and Kaiju Skin*, Xiao makes three-dimensional works along with drawings to generate familiar shapes, diagrams, and imageries that construct our everyday perceptions. Informed by both personal experiences and collected anecdotes, his works demonstrate the tragicomic subordination of humans to the ultimate cure, fitness, and life extension in an often dichotomous pursuit of science/quackery, love/violence, stoicism/self-indulgence.
*Kaiju Skin is a self-developed material made out of latex balloons and duct tapes to automatically form organic shapes and irregular textures mimicking kaiju. Kaiju is a Japanese term originated from The Classic of Mountains and Seas (a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts) and can be roughly translated to 'giant and strange monster'. It also refers to the sub-genre of tokusatsu films and TV featuring live action actors in kaiju costumes rampaging over a miniature metropolis.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 - 13:30 to 14:00
Octagon Gallery Event Octagon Gallery