Yi Lian
Born 1987 in Yichun , Jiangxi Province , China. Lives and works in Hangzhou , China.
Yi Lian graduated from the New Media Art Department of the China Academy of Art (BA, 2009) and the School of Inter-media Art of the China Academy of Art (MFA, 2012). His work encompasses video, installation and photography. He enjoys engaging dark light settings to make his images both realistic and abstract. His recent solo exhibitions include: "Yi Lian - Cinema Paradiso"( Bonacon Gallery, Guangzhou, 2018),"The Desolate Timeline"(Telescope Art Space, Beiing , 2016), "DEMIBEAST"(Inna Art Space, Hangzhou).
Ask for the Moon
In 2010, Yi Lian started to record his dreams. He repeated the course of these diaristic accounts for thousands of days and nights. From the moment he transferred his visions into written word, the dreams established independent structures and new meanings.
The 10-year period of time encompassing this project is long enough to constitute the principal aspects of Yi Lian's methodology. His videos combine elements of both confusion and optimism; they are quiet and mysterious, but also full of imagination and hope. Akin to bizarre theatrical displays, many forms appear and disappear in the dreamscape. Random trees, animals, people, bodies, etc. follow their own set tracks but happen to all intersect in his version of space and time.
Yi often constructs his work from a third-person perspective, attempting to relate to the viewer - the Other - through the feelings and predicaments in living beings beside his own. Although watching a video is different from physically dreaming yourself, the artist believes that all mediums of expression can be thought of as externalized parts of dreams because of their similar characteristic of entangled interpretation and experience.
Artists: Yi Lian
Curator: Cai Liyuan