Yijia Yang

Dasein (The Being)

2019

Plaster

In my sculptures, I explore an existential status: we live alone. Human beings are all the same in that each one has a body and a pivot point standing gravitationally. However, on the emotional level, we are unique, and cannot fit our thoughts exactly into others’ understanding. We are alone. My sculptural crowd mimics an environment where people live and socialize with others. The variety of figurative poses shows the singularity of each person. These slim and tall plaster sculptures seem to fall apart due to the seemingly unbalanced structure. This generates a nervousness and uncertainty. 

Assimilation

2019

Acrylic on Canvas

30 x 30 inches

The painting series explores the various forms of people being in the society by portraying human beings as twisted shapes and presenting the connection of the shapes metaphorically as interpersonal relationships. Our self-consciousness changes when we see ourselves through others’ objectification. Interpersonal relations change our self-understanding and behavior, even though we might not be aware of the impact. People could see themselves through the sophisticated relationships and complicated feelings encountered in the social life in the paintings. 

The Advanced Painting project, oil and acrylic painting, 80''x80'', 2016

This work presents a state of love that you may face in a relationship and it inspires you to ponder over your own emotion and feeling. So when you involve in a relationship, which role are you taking and what do you think?

The Advanced Painting project, oil and acrylic painting, 40''x40'', 2016

Make a pause and think about you, only yourself. What do you feel about the current mood or situation? Have you ever felt detached as you are surrounded by the crowd or deal with bunch of things? Or have you work so hard to seek for something but then find out it is just a illusion?

This work mainly focuses on a transient state of a person. The face, hair with heavy brushstrokes and the skin color give a visual compulsion to people and try to generate an awareness of people themselves. The whole work consists of cold color such as greyish purple and blue, which generates a non-realistic feeling to people and provides people more space to think. And I depict myself as the subject matter of the painting, presenting my own feeling about 'me' and life. 

The Advanced Painting project, oil painting and wood, mural on wall, 2016

The theme of this paintallation project is SPACE.  For my project, I try to create an intrinsic 3D space: each individual perceives the surrounding world by using his or her own eyes to understand and to explore. The world is seen through our own eyes. It is our perception that enables us feel and experience the kaleidoscopic world in they unique ways. People decide what it looks like and see whether it is interesting, rich and vivid or, on the other hand, mundane and lifeless. Everything is about us and the world space should be our own space.

The Advanced Painting project, oil and acrylic painting, hexagon wood frame, 60'', 2016

Think. Skyish mountain? 

The Advanced Painting project, oil and acrylic painting on canvas, 2016

It is an experimental work on oil paints. I wish to get familiar with oil paints and try adding different layers to enhance the visual experience. 

The printmaking artwork on the linoleum block, 8''x10'', 2016

‘The Secret’ explores human nature and desire. The image presents a static moment that a woman wants to touch the pistil of the flower, generating a similar feeling of exploring her self-nature. The artwork is full of details with complicated lines, dots and curves. The series of ‘The Secret’ shows a touch of printing on different textures and an attempt of using various color. 

The sculpture project with woods, thin iron wires and a light bulb, 12''x12''x12'', 2016

The project conveys ideas of freedom and thinking out of the box. The installation of a light bulb, woods and iron wires presents a scene of how lights go through the complex iron wires and shed lights on every corner. It arouses people a sense of feeling that no matter how many obstacles and challenges they might face, there is always a brightness and solution. Creative, interesting and useful thoughts will lead to the success and that is the importance of thinking out of the box.

The printmaking artwork on the linoleum block, 3''x4'', 2016

The artwork presents my nostalgia and longing of China by using Chinese characters with the meaning of plum trees. It is an experiential work for me to test thickness and softness of the printmaking material and to learn how to use printmaking tools. The works use bright and dark colors to present the scenes of plum trees that people could see in the morning and evening. It is the beauty of nature. 

The drawing self-portrait project, graphite and charcoals on paper, 21''x28'', 2016

The self-portrait project is a great practice of drawing. Learning the proportion and structure of human’s face and exploring details of how to draw eyes, noses, lips and ears. Also, drawing self portrait is a great opportunity to practice a sense of lights and shadows. I applied several pencil drawing techniques such as hatching, cross hatching and back and forth stroke. In order to make my face stand out, I used charcoals to fulfil and darken the background and used graphite pencils to draw the face. 

The digital arts project ‘hot sauce label design’, 3''x6'', 2016

The project is to do a label design for hot sauce. The concept of the label design is minimalism by using simple but attractive words and graphics to present. The woman facial expression is one of the most important components to represent the idea of ‘Who is the hottest?’. Using white parchment paper as the artwork’s background is to do a contrast between the red sauce and the label. 

The painting project, acrylic on paper, 11''x15'', 2016

 The series of ‘The Mug’ contains the experimental work, the mug value study, mug color study and color wheel. The process of painting the mug is a great chance to learn color values, lights and shadows. By adding the color, light and shadow, the painting becomes more dimensional and spacial. 

The drawing project, graphite on paper, 8''x10'', 2016

This project mainly describes an interesting relationship, between actions and minds. WhenI jump and slide without looking at the paper,  my drawing sketches of these processes are different. It is about the understanding of the movements, not intentional thought of what should I draw. 

The drawing project, graphite and charcoals on paper, 14''x17'', 2016

It is my first attempt of fast drawing. Different time intervals give me distinct observations of the portrayed objects. Additionally, it helps me to develop a sense of gesture and contour drawings. Sometimes, I can better feel the figures without deliberately pondering over the objects such as dogs, 

The digital arts project, album design, 2016

The Glass Animals is my favourite band, whose themes of music always relate to human and nature. Hearing the slippery, mellow and sexy voice with strong beats and rhythmic melody, I am always thinking about repetitions of patterns and waves.