Get your art fix: the work of Yang Yongliang at Sullivan + Strumpf Sydney
Born in Shanghai in 1980, at the dawn of China’s open door economic policies, Yang Yongliang has, throughout his lifetime, witnessed the relentless transformation of his surroundings. Now an artist who channels traumatic erasure of his personal history. Decades ago, his own birthplace, an ancient water town with traditional houses, a famous pagoda, and old humpbacked stone bridges over quiet canals, was swallowed by the ever-expanding Shanghai suburbs. So much so that when he returned from university, almost everything he remembered had vanished. On and on, an unceasing expansion, bulldozers tearing up and destroying the landscape, ancient villages replaced by endless rows of high-rise apartment blocks lining eight lane highways. Very movingly, his work’s as if he is constantly revisiting the moment of shock, returning home to find no trace of the familiar. At once fascinated and appalled by this transformation, his work is a lament for all that has been lost, and a warning for the future. And now you can see it digitally courtesy of Sydney’s Sullivan + Strumpf gallery in Zetland
