Young emerging Chinese artist Yang Mushi experiments and works with raw industrial materials in his inaugural exhibition at Galerie Urs Meile in Beijing. “Illegitimate Production” runs through October 16, showcasing nine of the artist's large-scale sculptural works dealing with various types of industrial labor, and their influence on a diverse set of materials.The prominent raw materials employed and worked on by Yang — such as processed wood, foam, and sawdust — are subjected to repetitive and long-lasting procedures by the artist, which include grinding, subtracting, cutting, and eroding. They are subsequently shaped and covered with black lacquer, thus transforming “ordinary materials into something violent, fragile, and sharp.” For Yang, these large-scale works convey a suppressed visual experience as well as a peculiar sense of solitude. “It triggers contemplations on the legitimacy of industrial production emerging along with the extreme urban development of China in the context of globalization, as well as the oppression and crisis confronted by individuals in the rapidly changing society,” he is quoted as saying in a press release.The sculpture “Grinding,” 2013-2016 is an exemplary work made of wood, aluminum plate, and black spray lacquer, addressing the aggressive and sharp action of this procedure, which took a period of three years to produce via a continuous process of cutting, sharpening, and grinding. The black aluminum on the sharp edges aims to portray an aggressive space after the abiding and confrontational process of “grinding.”Similarly, in “Subtracting – Pole,” 2015, Yang metaphorically utilizes abandoned wood beams to refer to the abandoned “us,” which are sharpened and obliged to change. The alienation of the objects mirrors “the regression and deformity coming along with the social maturation.”Shanghai-based Yang Mushi recently graduated from the Sculpture Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. This year, he participated in a group show titled “Turning Point: Contemporary Art in China Since 2000” at Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, as well as in “WE — A Community of Chinese Contemporary Artists,” at chi K11 Art Museum in the same city.“Illegitimate Production” runs through October 16 at Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing.
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