Ziwei Yang

Consumables

Contemporary Art Practice - MA

School of Art

Z.Yang-96@sms.ed.ac.uk

Consumables 2

The video Consumables 2 shows a four-part story through a number of behaviors, using matches as a proxy for the functioning of a section of society, showing through changes in movement how people's lives change as they are eliminated from the job market, confronting some of the fears and real-life scenarios. The constant repetition of images is used as a reminder of how people are consumed by the bourgeoisie and the social system. These problems are not only between companies and job seekers but a pathological crisis of a social system on the verge of collapse.

Consumables 1

The sculpture Consumables 1 is a socially-engaged artwork that shows a precarious tower of folders. The discarded folders that make up the tower symbolize job seekers who have been eliminated from the market, and like the folders in the vast social system, they are unlikely to be given a chance to return to the workplace. How workers are used, replaced, and discarded as consumables in a systemic and high-pressure market competition crisis.

As a contemporary artist, my creations are an extension of my poetic soul, a manifestation of the indescribable balance I seek between myself and the world. My works are a reflection of the beauty I see in life and the turmoil that surrounds it. I work with video, photography, performance, mixed media installations, intervention, and sculpture. Through sculpture and video, I aim to capture the essence of the human experience and bring it to life in a tangible form.

By employing contrasting and often metaphorical language, I want to amplify the possible ways in which the viewer can receive the work, creating compositions or settings that generate critical and poetic images, leaving space for reflection. In this way, collecting and gleaning, recreating and reconstructing in this way provides us with an alternative narrative of life.

With every piece I create, I hope to evoke emotions and provoke thought, to inspire individuals to look within themselves and connect with the world around them. My works are not merely pieces of art, but rather, they are vessels of meaning and symbolism, each telling a unique story.