yang fudong: as brought to you by ray

all images from.............. china.shanghartgallery.com ( this web site has lots about Fudong)
Article of choice from.......Parkett no.76 2006 pages 64-103

Sometimes its so difficult to find a journal article I really can relate to and enjoy.I have been trying to look at each one but some are such hard reading,wordy overly intellectualized the art while not really even telling me what's its about in content and form basics of the artist,how they work and other things I would find interesting. Parkett I would say is very into a lot of talk and I looked through so many to find something which looked interesting to me in a sculptural way, but I didn't get the write up i would like to be able to be excited about what i saw because i still don't really understand a lot about this artist even after reading many pages, i only understand what the people writing the articles think about it........Anyway that's my journal frustration experience and now here is the artist..................

Yang Fudong is a 34 year old artist from Shanghai china who does mainly video and photography work after starting as a painter. the article(s) mainly talk about the videos will try to briefly explain what I can of him from what I read and I hope i give the good info in a readable hmmm way.He has done so many videos/films,14 i think but perhaps more and they all sound really interesting. they feature common themes flowing through them like the sky,chinese culture,chinese fables,taoism,and the same story with different endings and possibilities.I actually came across some pictures of his work when researching the group project. Many of the videos are shown on many screens with different parts or outcomes on each and some with the screens in seperate rooms.They sound like they would be very impressive to see.They are called abstract films but seem to have a sort of
story or narrative. they look like they are really high production value well made beautifully crafted films that deal with interesting and thought provoking human subject matter.Emotions and sensations,intuition and practice.Sexual desire,food death, argument and essentially life are all in the context of his work.And taoism plays a very big role.His films are expressions of his personal history and experience,the connection between self and society/reality and the vulnerability and hope of dreaming.

Fudong came up with the term abstract cinema for his work and his description of it probably best sums up his works....
"the techniques for abstract cinema do not follow certain rules, they are broader than the traditional principles.In any case abstract cinema is different from realistic cinema,to me abstract cinema is about the images of ideas deep in peoples hearts and minds,it is like some non-describable collision in ones heart." which i think is really,really beautiful and makes me a little emotional.I would really love to see these works. they sound quite amazing.
i just found another beautiful thing he said(about the differernce between films and instillations as forms of expression)
"Every form of artistic expression comes to the same conclusion.They are like nets cast into the deep blue sea,waiting for the moment when the fish come in" wow.he said a lot of really beautiful things but this is getting long.touching stuff.

I guess the great thing about journals is no matter how disapointing the read may be they still peak your interest and curiosity to find out more about the artists which i shall thank them for......thank you journals!
and i hope i have done the same and not just been like a bad journal boring you silly...............and leaving out the good bits.


p.s i also just realised that usually i'm too rushed or the articles too wordy to get straight in but after a while something seeps out into your brain and sticks,nice one.