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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Yang Xinguang
On View
South Galleries, 220
Yang Xinguang 楊心廣
Xie Ju (The Way of the Measured) 絜矩
2007
This sculptural installation consists of two sets of light-coloured cobblestones placed on the ground—one a pile of broken and irregular stones, and the other a neat square made of smooth components. Clean Lines is one of Yang Xinguang’s earliest works, produced for his graduation show at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. Yang cut stones into rectangles with a cutting machine, arranging the blocks into a square, and gathered the cut pieces into a heap. The choice of stone is characteristic of Yang’s sculptural practice, which explores tensions in the relationship between humanity and nature. Many of his works involve chiselling or carving, revealing stone’s natural characteristics while also demonstrating its transformation from its natural state. For this work, Yang draws from classical Chinese ideas of personal cultivation, cutting off six sides to create a square that represents a stable society. For him, the process of evening out the stones alters their natural properties such that the rectangular pieces are no longer mere stones, but objects filled with cultural meaning. In some of his later works, Yang incorporates performance into his sculptural installations, which often combine synthetic and natural materials.
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