Yuxuan Cui

sociaal-maatschappelijk, schrijven, residency, Literair, installatie, fotografie, Figuratief, Documentair, Diaspora, Audiovisueel, Artistiek onderzoek, Archieven

Lees voor

Cui Yuxuan (b.1999, Changchun, China) is a visual artist and storyteller currently living and working in the Netherlands. Yuxuan holds a BA from School of Foreign Studies & School of Arts, Nanjing University, and obtains her MA Fine Arts at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU).\r\n\r\nHer work extensively combines photography, video installation, archives, semi-fictional text, and participatory experience. These narratives reside in the interstice between fiction, documentary, and investigative research. Stemming from individual life experiences, she employs a feminine perspective and poetic language to narrate the transformations of identity amidst geographical migration and varied relationships. She delves into the intricate geopolitical dynamics of marginal areas and the political and historical remains therein. Committed to making the invisible visible, the clear ambiguous, and the solid flexible, she endeavors to utilize bodily perception and border-crossing movement as subtle interventions in society, responding to the pervasive power micro-techniques within history and memory.

**Borderline as Storyline, 2024** - (During the residency at Het Wilde Weten) He made a decision... He made a decision... Smoke as fine as spider silk, winding through the silence of the borderlands, He was trapped in endless waiting, until became a hole in the shape of a man in the landscape. Running deeper into the forest alone, you hear the unsettling echo of oars from afar. In your memory, points of light flicker between reality and illusion, in the past, you always looked towards the other shore. Until those lights converged into a tangible gateway, becoming a path of escape and loss. The wheel of fate spins beneath your feet, scenes of trauma and fear keep resurfacing, You keep losing as you move forward, but in the shadow of loss, you are forced to continue on.

Borderline as storyline - Curse — **Borderline as Storyline - Curse** - I try to reorganize and reinterpret these old postcards I collected in a Kringloop shop in Rotterdam half a year ago, about a North Korean revolutionary opera called The Song of Mount Kumgang. Landscape is omnipresent, dominating our lives. I see sacred landscapes, promises that could never be fulfilled, and cursed absent people.

**Borderline as Storyline - Land on you** - In this work, we explore two distinctly different yet intriguingly similar stories: one rooted in popular culture and idealized propaganda, the other stemming from hearsay. The Korean drama Crash Landing on You tells a story of love that transcends borders, where the female protagonist, an heiress of a South Korean conglomerate, is swept into North Korea by a storm during a paragliding accident, leading her to a forbidden romance with a North Korean military officer. Meanwhile, in the forests along the China-North Korea border, we came across a story that echoes this narrative: a pine nut harvester, who, while working high in the trees using a hydrogen balloon, was swept away by a strong wind, vanishing into the sky. A hundred days later, he mysteriously returned to the area. We rephotographed and reimagined visual elements from Crash Landing on You, images sourced from the internet, and photographs we shooted, reconstructing the untold middle part of the pine nut harvester story through a slideshow presentation in the exhibition space. By juxtaposing and intertwining these seemingly parallel yet intersecting narratives, the work seeks to explore the complex relationships between borders, identity, memory, and fate. The fragmentation and reassembly of images within the piece are not random but intentionally designed to provoke reflection on the narrative gaps. The focus is not only on the beginning and end of the stories but also on the "untold" process—a metaphorical journey across borders and identities. It is a reevaluation of memory and hearsay, a poetic reconstruction of reality and fiction. Through the slideshow presentation, we invite the audience to engage in the (un)finished puzzle of this narrative.

**Borderline as storyline - The oars take us around in circles.** - “ Where have you been? ” “ Where are you going? ”

**JiaKong, JiaKong, 2024** - (Installation View at Taoxichuan Art Museum, Jingdezhen, CN) JiaKong, meaning "fiction," employs a creative approach of constructing a fictional community, aiming to explore alternative reference systems beyond existing institutional norms. These could be the life views and survival techniques of minority groups, collective memories, or steadfast beliefs, leading to systematic reflections on contemporary issues such as cultural tourism propaganda, museum stances and narratives, and contemporary art. In terms of knowledge and document organization, an interdisciplinary and integrated research perspective is adopted, combining the focuses of art, anthropology, archaeology, and other studies to initially construct the narrative system of the JiaKong community. Subsequently, the work is based on the same "epic background," "historical research," and "aesthetic system," narrating the unique chaotic and brilliant life journeys and views on life and death of the JiaKong community.

**JiaKong, JiaKong, 2024** - JiaKong, meaning "fiction," employs a creative approach of constructing a fictional community, aiming to explore alternative reference systems beyond existing institutional norms. These could be the life views and survival techniques of minority groups, collective memories, or steadfast beliefs, leading to systematic reflections on contemporary issues such as cultural tourism propaganda, museum stances and narratives, and contemporary art. In terms of knowledge and document organization, an interdisciplinary and integrated research perspective is adopted, combining the focuses of art, anthropology, archaeology, and other studies to initially construct the narrative system of the JiaKong community. Subsequently, the work is based on the same "epic background," "historical research," and "aesthetic system," narrating the unique chaotic and brilliant life journeys and views on life and death of the JiaKong community.

**Trespass, 2023-2024** - (During the residency at Brutus Art Lab) The exploration of border and enclave landscapes in our work challenges the conventional notion of borders as impenetrable walls or insurmountable barriers. In a physical sense, these barriers and obstacles are not singular structures but intricate compositions of multiple elements. Through walking and drifting, we seek to reveal the significance and impact of these borders, shedding light on how they are constructed. Consequently, borders become more than just geographical divisions; they transform into a methodology, a profound approach to comprehending social, cultural, and political differences.

**Love Me Tender, Bite Me True, 2022-2023** - This work is based on a fictional voyage log the artist wrote featuring a female sailor accompanied only by her feline companion, Benjamin. Inspired by the journals of Captain Matthew Flinders describing his friendship with his ship cat Trim, Yuxuan has reimagined her own adventures. She leaves the attributes of masculinity, patriarchy, and colonial conquest behind and attends to the absence of women in these archives. From a female perspective, she recounts the bond formed with Benjamin through their shared experience of “escape” and rewrites their destiny on the sea. Benjamin becomes her closest, most dependable companion, with whom she shares time, space, memories and kinship. In crafting these narratives, Yuxuan often returned to a common Chinese phrase “同舟共济” meaning to sail alongside someone even in the face of hardship, towards a shared fate. This expression promotes sentiments of trust, solidarity and companionship that she aspires to in her rapport with Benjamin. Both the voyage and the relationship challenge her to seek true understanding, unity and connection, beyond even her own species. She wonders if it’s just a coincidence words like relationship, friendship, companionship and kinship all end in ship?

**Love Me Tender, Bite Me True, 2022-2023** - This work is based on a fictional voyage log the artist wrote featuring a female sailor accompanied only by her feline companion, Benjamin. Inspired by the journals of Captain Matthew Flinders describing his friendship with his ship cat Trim, Yuxuan has reimagined her own adventures. She leaves the attributes of masculinity, patriarchy, and colonial conquest behind and attends to the absence of women in these archives. From a female perspective, she recounts the bond formed with Benjamin through their shared experience of “escape” and rewrites their destiny on the sea. Benjamin becomes her closest, most dependable companion, with whom she shares time, space, memories and kinship. In crafting these narratives, Yuxuan often returned to a common Chinese phrase “同舟共济” meaning to sail alongside someone even in the face of hardship, towards a shared fate. This expression promotes sentiments of trust, solidarity and companionship that she aspires to in her rapport with Benjamin. Both the voyage and the relationship challenge her to seek true understanding, unity and connection, beyond even her own species. She wonders if it’s just a coincidence words like relationship, friendship, companionship and kinship all end in ship?

**Lost, Lost, Lost, 2022** - On the second day of our trip to Kosovo, we unexpectedly lost our Dutch residency cards, which prevented us from returning to the Netherlands as planned. As holders of Chinese passports, we were facing illegal residence here, and the special geopolitical situation made it almost impossible for us to travel in the surrounding countries. So, in this lost land, we searched for our lost documents while also allowing ourselves to explore and wander through the city. The giant of former Yugoslavia is half silent and half noisy, with symbols of power and capital filling it. We negotiated with embassies, Chinese offices, and police stations, chatted with locals - veterans, drug dealers, taxi drivers, young students, war widows, the elderly, children - and encountered stray dogs on the streets. The moments in history that were once tightly closed gradually opened up to us. When we finally realized we might never be able to retrieve those documents, we found that our situation and lives were gradually overlapping with those of the people of this land. We seemed to be on an isolated island, and our identities were also entering a "shelf life" of 15 days. "Lost" has many meanings in English: lost track, disappeared, missing, bewildered, confused, immersed, addicted... Each layer of meaning resonated with our situation at the time. We hope to present an experience of being lost and finding one's way again, of the constantly extended waiting, and of two "outsiders" intimately and intuitively exploring the post-socialist landscape.

**Lost, Lost, Lost, 2022** - On the second day of our trip to Kosovo, we unexpectedly lost our Dutch residency cards, which prevented us from returning to the Netherlands as planned. As holders of Chinese passports, we were facing illegal residence here, and the special geopolitical situation made it almost impossible for us to travel in the surrounding countries. So, in this lost land, we searched for our lost documents while also allowing ourselves to explore and wander through the city. The giant of former Yugoslavia is half silent and half noisy, with symbols of power and capital filling it. We negotiated with embassies, Chinese offices, and police stations, chatted with locals - veterans, drug dealers, taxi drivers, young students, war widows, the elderly, children - and encountered stray dogs on the streets. The moments in history that were once tightly closed gradually opened up to us. When we finally realized we might never be able to retrieve those documents, we found that our situation and lives were gradually overlapping with those of the people of this land. We seemed to be on an isolated island, and our identities were also entering a "shelf life" of 15 days. "Lost" has many meanings in English: lost track, disappeared, missing, bewildered, confused, immersed, addicted... Each layer of meaning resonated with our situation at the time. We hope to present an experience of being lost and finding one's way again, of the constantly extended waiting, and of two "outsiders" intimately and intuitively exploring the post-socialist landscape.

**What you will, 2022** - (During the residency at Summer Academy of Fine Arts) This piece, conceived during a residency in Salzburg, emerges as an exploration of the body’s unseen choreography within the architecture of space and the boundaries that subtly mold it. Through movement, it investigates the intricate interplay between resilience and fragility within the female form, probing how physical spaces shape and interact with bodily presence. The video unfolds as a fluid visual poetry, weaving together shifting rhythms, fragmented narratives, and layered imagery that metaphorically evoke the power dynamics of boundaries and gendered territories. In a manner reminiscent of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, this work conjures a nocturnal world where identities are fluid and boundaries blur under the cover of darkness. Just as night obscures and reveals, the video navigates the liminal spaces where the body's agency is both constrained and liberated. The concept of 'what you will' resonates deeply here, inviting a contemplation of how the self is constructed and reconstructed in the twilight, where the invisible architecture of space shapes our movements, and the boundaries of gender become mutable, even negotiable.

**Deconstruct the Tools, 2020-2024** - As Marshall McLuhan is famously quoted, "We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us." Tools, as the foundation of civilization, play a crucial role in our society. Evolving from primitive implements, the emergence of agricultural tools marked the rise of agricultural civilization. Tools are not only extensions of the human body but also carriers of ideology, creating new forms and scales within human life. As they drive the progress of civilization, they also shape our understanding of "safety" and "violence." "Deconstructing Tools" explores the complex relationship between tools and "safety" through ritualistic portraits of agricultural implements imbued with metaphorical power. In these images, tools act as collective symbols, simultaneously creators of safety and potential vessels of violence. Their use and proliferation not only grant society a sense of order and security but also subtly intensify dependence on power and control. In this project, I employ multi-layered artistic techniques, repeatedly printing, overlaying, and reconstructing elements such as symbols, text, and codes, juxtaposed with photographic images, to create an abstract visual language. This language reveals the hidden relationships between tools, civilization, and history. The interplay between images and text uncovers how tools are redefined within collective memory and ideology. This process reflects the violent attributes tools have carried throughout history and questions whether they can genuinely guarantee collective safety.

**Deconstruct the Tools, 2020-2024** - As Marshall McLuhan is famously quoted, "We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us." Tools, as the foundation of civilization, play a crucial role in our society. Evolving from primitive implements, the emergence of agricultural tools marked the rise of agricultural civilization. Tools are not only extensions of the human body but also carriers of ideology, creating new forms and scales within human life. As they drive the progress of civilization, they also shape our understanding of "safety" and "violence." "Deconstructing Tools" explores the complex relationship between tools and "safety" through ritualistic portraits of agricultural implements imbued with metaphorical power. In these images, tools act as collective symbols, simultaneously creators of safety and potential vessels of violence. Their use and proliferation not only grant society a sense of order and security but also subtly intensify dependence on power and control. In this project, I employ multi-layered artistic techniques, repeatedly printing, overlaying, and reconstructing elements such as symbols, text, and codes, juxtaposed with photographic images, to create an abstract visual language. This language reveals the hidden relationships between tools, civilization, and history. The interplay between images and text uncovers how tools are redefined within collective memory and ideology. This process reflects the violent attributes tools have carried throughout history and questions whether they can genuinely guarantee collective safety.

**Puppet Manchukuo - Echoes in the Layers of Time, 2020-2024** - (Installation View of my solo exhibition at Peri Photographic Gallery, Turku, Finland) In early 2020, amidst the urban landscape of Changchun, once the capital of "Manchukuo," the artist's accidental discovery near home reignited a deep exploration of hidden relics from the colonial era. Based on field research, combined with archival research and folk imagery, she uncovered a city meticulously planned under Japanese colonial planning, but now navigating a complex and prolonged process of decolonization. Government buildings and commercial centers, repurposed over time by new powers and capital, coexist with obscured ruins and temples transformed by ideology, and sculptures fractured by public discourse. These sites, filled with fading traces, serve as vessels reshaped by collective memory - a cyclical overlay of history. The artist perceives Changchun today through a personal and aesthetic lens, where remnants of Manchukuo seamlessly integrate into daily life. A desolate shrine becomes a playground for military families, while overgrown areas near temples evoke reflections on youth and family bonds. At Jimmu Temple, a former Bushido training ground now hosts a community stage and cinema, bustling with elderly residents amidst poetic decay. These everyday scenes intricately intertwine with Changchun's colonial past, prompting the artist to capture the unacknowledged and contested hybridity inherent in these spaces. Through photography, she seeks to encapsulate these profound intersections of past and present, to narrate Changchun's evolving identity and her journey of connection. Each image speaks to the layered complexities of memory, resilience, and ever-shifting narratives within the city—a visual exploration of history's enduring echoes in the present landscape.

**Puppet Manchukuo - Echoes in the Layers of Time** - In early 2020, amidst the urban landscape of Changchun, once the capital of "Manchukuo," the artist's accidental discovery near home reignited a deep exploration of hidden relics from the colonial era. Based on field research, combined with archival research and folk imagery, she uncovered a city meticulously planned under Japanese colonial planning, but now navigating a complex and prolonged process of decolonization. Government buildings and commercial centers, repurposed over time by new powers and capital, coexist with obscured ruins and temples transformed by ideology, and sculptures fractured by public discourse. These sites, filled with fading traces, serve as vessels reshaped by collective memory - a cyclical overlay of history. The artist perceives Changchun today through a personal and aesthetic lens, where remnants of Manchukuo seamlessly integrate into daily life. A desolate shrine becomes a playground for military families, while overgrown areas near temples evoke reflections on youth and family bonds. At Jimmu Temple, a former Bushido training ground now hosts a community stage and cinema, bustling with elderly residents amidst poetic decay. These everyday scenes intricately intertwine with Changchun's colonial past, prompting the artist to capture the unacknowledged and contested hybridity inherent in these spaces. Through photography, she seeks to encapsulate these profound intersections of past and present, to narrate Changchun's evolving identity and her journey of connection. Each image speaks to the layered complexities of memory, resilience, and ever-shifting narratives within the city—a visual exploration of history's enduring echoes in the present landscape.

Het Wilde Weten Artist-In-Residency Program

Datum: 01-05-2024 t/m 31-07-2024

Locatie: Het Wilde Weten

During three-month residency at HWW, she will continue the "So far, so close" project, which focuses on her and partner Richard Liu's recent experiences in her hometown Jilin and the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. As a native of Jilin, Yuxuan has traveled with her family in the border regions of Northeast Asia since childhood. Her most profound memory of "the other side," North Korea, is from her childhood boat tours on the Yalu River, where she saw it as another world, a place she could

https://www.hetwildeweten.nl/

Deze kunstenaar heeft nog geen toekenningen.