Another Planet- Liu Yang’s Photogram Works
Liu Yang, female, was born in 1976 in China, moved to USA in March 2022, currently is living and working in Peoria.
Liu began to like photography from 2005. Her works have been published in magazines. Since 2015, she has been obsessed with contemporary art and learned that photography can be an expression, not just a record. Moreover, she went to Europe to see the Venice Biennale and Cassel Documenta, and visited Thomas Ruff, a representative of Dusseldorf Academy of Arts, in Dusseldorf. In 2017, she began to study and explore Photogram, made many experiments and started to create photogram works. In April 2019, she participated in artist Wang Qingsong’s workshop learning activities.
Liu Yang’s photogram works DREAM TRILOGY are including DREAM, DREAM INCEPTION and ANOTHER PLANET. All the works were created in dark room, she used photographic paper as the materials, but images were not taken by camera, they are photogram. The productions of the images were to place the objects between photographic paper and lights, then exposure. Details of the objects were lost, some were deformed, some were moved. Outline and color of the objects are well designed by self-modified lights. Some of the creations adopted multi-exposure by different lights, just like to use lights to draw on the photo paper. In ANOTHER PLANET, she poured transparent aqua on glass or acrylic plate, let them move and mix naturally to create patterns, and then put objects on it. The preparation of creation usually took some days, and then she eventually realized it in a big dark room.
ANOTHER PLANET ideas were connected with Dream Inception that was a process that Liu Yang took three months to insert cosmic information into her real dream. It aroused her fascination with cosmic themes, imagination of the future, and concern of human fate. When we look at our world from the perspective of the universe, when we see the images that James Webb send back about the deep space billions of light years away, we understand how tiny we are so does the human civilization. ANOTHER PLANET is a bold imagination of what another planet and alien lives could be in artist’s point of view, also in viewer’s imagination when they participate, and what humanity would be after becoming multi-planetary species. The artist hope people don’t forget the sea of stars; don’t be at ease with the comfort brought by technology. ANOTHER PLANET creation is still ongoing.
Exhibitions and Publications:
Dec.18,2021-March 26, 2022, Neither-Nor, SEE+ Gallery, Beijing & Shenzhen, China
Dec.2021, Dream Inception works published on China Photography Magazine.
2021.03.20 Aggregation, National Large Format Photography Exhibition, Ying Photo Gallery, Beijing, China.
Dec. 2020, “Gentle Particles- A hundred Years Photography Original Works Show” , Xi’an Zhongnanshan Silver Salt Gallery, China
Sept. 2020, 20th Pingyao International Photography Festival. China
Sept.2020, DREAM works were published in Chinese Photographers Magazine
Award:
DREAM works were granted No. 1 of the Ten Excellent Work Awards in the 2020 20th Pingyao International Photography Festival, China
Dream Inception, shortlisted in 28th China National Photography Exhibition Contest.