User:Donnie Park/Lao Yu

Yao Lu (Chinese: 姚璐) (born 30 April 1967) is a Chinese conceptual artist famous for his work on landscape photomontage titled “New Landscapes” (新山水).

A university professor by profession, he is famous for his work depicting the overdevelopment of modern China and the destruction of the environment it has caused in contrast to it’s peace and tranquillity portrayed in traditional paintings that he recreates using groups of photographs to create a digital photomontage via photo manipulation software.

Previously unknown even in his native country, his work has came into international attention when in 2008, he won an international prize for art photography and since then his work has been displayed in art galleries all over the world including London.

Biography
Yao Lu was born on the 30th April 1967 in Beijing.

Between 1987 to 1991, he studied printmaking (Galleriaotto, 2008) at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (Prix Pictet shortlist, 2009)

Deciding photography was for him, he then studied for a Master of Arts in 1998, specialising in Visual Arts in Photography at the Queensland College of Arts, part of the Griffith University in Brisbane, graduating in 2000 (Prix Pictet shortlist, 2009).

Although he carried out substantial bodies of work in contemporary art, since 2000 (Galleriaotto, 2008), he works as a Associate Professor of School of Design at the same university where he studied (Prix Pictet shortlist, 2009), specialising in Photography (Paris Photo, 2008).

Techniques
Yao work of the mountains is created in three stages as this process requires a lot of time needed to travel all over China to take photographs including elements of landscapes, not to mention a complex process (only-apartments.com).

He begins his task by covering mountains of rubbish with green protective nets, then take photographs of them in different angles, and then the usual digital photography process, load them into his computer, adding in digital effects such as mists or clouds using photo manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop (e-flux). Pagodas, houses, boats, and trees (hotlermanndesign) are added in to the final touch to replicate the element of a Shan Shui paintings process (only-apartments.com). Topic

His work depicts the problems with modern China as expansions and population growth require development, the country is overrun with overdevelopment, particularly to the run-up to the Beijing Olympic games at the time. Also traditional housing that housed generations of families have been destroyed in favour of modernised multi storey apartments that have nothing to do with the country’s heritage.

The green dustproof construction nettings are common items found in building sites of modern Beijing; therefore they represent a dominant part of the picture. These according to Yao, are seen as the symbols of modern China, indicating that China will always be an endless construction site. Any cities that have not seen the green material may indicate that they are not yet undergoing development, in another words not yet undergoing the modernisation process, if not, they may not have a future, otherwise, they have fallen behind with the times. Therefore the green netting indicates the fate of the city (Art China).

Many of the country’s cultural heritage areas have been destroyed by developers in favour of overdeveloped and modernised (China Daily 8-4-2010) that are far beyond the reach of the average Chinese, who takes home US$6000 annually. Consequently, these buildings are left unoccupied. (LA Times)

Its residents and government officials view high rises and skyscrapers as futuristic symbols of modernisation and urbanisation, hence why they are built in cities without consideration whilst a section of a 1300 year old city wall has been destroyed to allow a motorway to be built.

Averagely, the lifespan of a Chinese building is less than thirty years, short compared to its Western counterparts, therefore a 10,000 square foot per meter building will create 500 to 600 tons of waste, whereas demolishing the same building will generate eleven times that of waste, in all, China uses up between 30 and 40 percent of the world’s steel and concrete and its construction takes up the same percentage of its total urban waste (Wang Qian, China Daily).

The reason for high rises is to allow developers to make money fast whilst they are criticised for damaging the cities heritage (China Daily 8-14-2010) Shan Shui

Yao is primarily inspired by traditional Shan Shui paintings of the 5th century Song Dynasties that also inspire artists even of today. This was chosen as, according to him, these paintings offer “an aesthetic and poetic sense, while garbage is destructive and undesirable. The undesirable comes from what was once good, so I wanted to restore their beauty and poetic sense, to express my memory of the past.” (archmuseum)

Shan Shui hua, meaning mountain and water painting, depict landscapes and are drawn using brush and ink. (Mu Xu)

The fundamental elements of the painting are the mountainous earth and the sea. The mountain represents the important part as it a sacred part of the landscape, thus those who live there are closest to heaven (Yee and Hsiung).

Shan shui represents the yin and yang irrespectively, shan is strong, tall and vertical pointing toward the heavens such as mountains and shui represents yin – soft, horizontal and lying on the earth, the main example is water (Mu Xu)

Yao hoped that whoever sees a mound of rubbish covered in green nettings will think of traditional Chinese paintings that they had seen. (archmuseum)

One other hallmark of tradition is the red marks that are traditional seal that is used to sign works. Yao is believed to be by the Designmixer blog to be inspired by the Bulgarian installation artist Christo, who famous for his work in 1995, in which he draped the entire Reichstag, in Berlin, with fabric sheeting (Designmixer).

Although will have been inspired by photomontage techniques, Gilbert and George possibly inspired Yao as they share the use of photomontage to bring message across to the viewer, also both addresses social issues (White Cube),

Yao is also inspired by Expressionist artists (Evans, Jessie), also was remarked by the museumarchitecture website as being reminiscent of Stratagem fourteen of the Thirty-Six Stratagems (archmuseum).

Achievement
Yao’s biggest achievement is winning the BMW Paris Photo Prize for contemporary art photographers in 2008. For that competition, each artist had to be represented by a participating gallery; the 798 Gallery in Beijing represented him. He was chosen amongst twenty shortlisted of fifty-five submitted entries, taking home a cash prize of US $15,000.

A year later, he was also shortlisted for the Paris based Prix Pictet, a competition for photographer that highlights environmental issues, also host touring exhibition across the world (Paris Photo. 2009).

Prior to his winning entry at Paris Photo, the virtually unknown Yao has never been exhibited outside China with the exception of the Fotofest International in Houston, an important Biennial for photographers (FotoFest, 2005) in 2008, and at the “Space and Transportation” exhibition in Graz, Austria, in 1997 (Paris Photo, 2008).

Since then, aside those exhibited in Mainland China, his work has been displayed all over the world including the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the National Gallery in Prague, numerous art shows and a few contemporary art solo exhibitions including New York. Most recently and still ongoing as of today, he has earned himself a solo exhibition at the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.

Critically acclaimed by a number of medias such as the Guardian, the Telegraph, Art in America and The New Yorker magazine aside being cited by the Guardian as one of the new wave of climate art.

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