YANG SHAOBIN

The fundamental anchor to Yang Shaobin’s practice has been his awareness of a social consciousness. Early explorations engage with the corporeal experience of the individual in society and collective memory. Later work often enters into the political realm, where familiar faces of Western, Soviet and Middle Eastern leaders haunt the surface of canvases, and scenes from media reports are interspersed with Yang’s violent abstractions. In recent years he has turned his attention back to his roots. Born to a coal-mining family, Yang Shaobin is highly concerned with the state of the coal-mining industry in China. His work, in collaboration with the Long March Project, delves into the underground world of exploitation, labor conditions and the physical repercussions suffered by the coalmining community. Through a diverse range of media including oil painting, video and installation, Yang Shaobin shares his personal encounter with the viewer, revealing the juxtaposition of hardship and happiness, despondency and courage in the lives of these coal miners.