Aranya Art Center is pleased to present the Videos by the Sea Public Screening Program, displaying video works on the motif of the “ocean,” created by four young artists: Ishu Han, Shi Zheng, and Wang Yuyan. From documented behaviors to computer-generated images and visual essays on the internet video era, the ocean, in the work of these three artists, represents not merely a natural landscape and a theme for depiction, but also a symbolic sign and awakening.
Ishu Han migrated with his parents to Japan at age nine. In his three short videos, the artist utilizes the ocean to explore personal experiences, memory, identity, belonging, and other issues surrounding the individual’s relationship to society through bodily intervention. Shi Zheng’s work Visioning Versioning I, the only computer-simulated video in the screening program, fictionalizes a constantly sinking undersea landscape, and attempts to create a purely perceptional experience for the audience through sound and image. Paris-based artist Wang Yuyan recycles a large number of fragmented images from the internet, which she weaves into a wave-like abstract narrative with a dreamy voiceover and decompressed rhythm, expanding the imagery of the ocean with a visually compelling artificial seascape.
This screening program is organized by Damien Zhang, director of Aranya Art Center and Yiyang Wu, Exhibition Coordinator. The screening is on view from July 1 through July 23, 2023.
Ishu Han
Born in Shanghai, 1987. Lives and works in Tokyo.
Ishu Han addresses questions regarding the complex relationship between individuals and society and the confusion caused by such relations. With sincerity, and sometimes with humor, Han speaks to viewers through a range of media – installation, photography, paintings, and video – in which he uses his own body or everyday items.
He has participated in numerous exhibitions, including “In the Wake – Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11” (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2015, and the Japan Society, New York, 2016), “Sights and Sounds: Highlights” (Jewish Museum, New York, 2016), “The Drifting Thinker” (MoCA Pavilion, Shanghai in 2017), “Opening the Art Center” (Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, 2019), “Thank You Memory” (Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, 2020), “MOT Annual 2021 A sea, a living room and skull” (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2021), “Countermeasures Against Awkward Discourses: From the Perspective of Third Wave Feminism” (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2021-2022), “Roppongi Crossing 2022: Coming & Going” (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2022), “Aichi Triennale 2022: STILL ALIVE” (Aichi Arts Center, Aichi, 2022), “Taohua Island – House Project” (Wuhan K11 Art Village, Shandong, 2022).
Shi Zheng
Shi Zheng (born in 1990) is an artist based in Shanghai. Shi's artistic creations range from audio-visual installations, digital music and live performance, demonstrating the artist's ongoing interest in simulation and "machine vision". Shi further embodies his reflection on the philosophy of technology, digital voyage and "latent time" by extending the audience's visual and audio experience.
Apart from individual creation, Shi Zheng also collaborates with other outstanding artists in various fields. In 2013, artistic ground RMBit was founded by Shi Zheng in conjunction with Nenghuo, Wang Zhipeng and Weng Wei with the focus on current context of social media. Both Shi and Nenghuo are the members of an audio-visual performance group OSC (Open Super Control).
Shi Zheng’s individual and cooperated works have been presented in a wide range of museums, art institutions and media art festivals home and abroad, including TANK Shanghai, MOCA Yinchuan, Sound Art China, FILE Electronic Language International Festival, Ars Electronica, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Castello di Rivara, The Lumen Prize, Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum and OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Shenzhen.
Shi Zheng holds a B.A. from China Academy of Art and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Wang Yuyan
Wang Yuyan (b. 1989, China) is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist living in Paris. She graduated from Le Fresnoy - National Studio of Contemporary Arts in 2020 and Beaux-Arts of Paris in 2016. She takes inspiration from the endless media production underpinned by industrial productivity. Her works oscillate between film, video and installation, often in an immersive perspective with a disintegrating abstraction process. Her works have been presented at Tate Modern, Palais de Tokyo, and the 12th Berlin Biennale. Her films have been selected for various festivals, such as the Berlinale International Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the European Media Art Festival, among others, and have received multiple awards.
