Yiling Wen

Feature Image - The screenshot from the video work "I miss you"

B. 1997. Guangzhou, China. Lives and studies in London.

Yiling Wen works across multi-media, including Moving-image, sound and installation. She is interested in the topics related to death, memory and human connection. Her practice is subjective in nature, weaving sound and language into the work. Yiling’s recent works focus on exploring the small but, vital things often overlooked, drawing people’s attention to the mundane.

Exhibitions

2021 - I miss you, Everything Forever, Online exhibition
2020 - Untitled (29/1/2020), 302_Redirect, Online exhibition
2020 - Let's make our Deathionary, Royal College of Art, Battersea, London, UK
2019 - Interactive Design of Children's Death Education, School of Design Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

Through my artistic works, I aim to break down the cultural taboo surrounding the topic of death, discussing death with the audience in a relaxed and humorous manner. I believe that the more we know about death, the closer we will be to the truth of life. Just as Japanese director Kitano Takeshi said, "Think about death is actually thinking about life".

The sudden death of my aunt during the pandemic and the fact that I couldn't see her last face, provoked me to think about how to preserve precious memories through limited materials. Besides, what is vital but is often overlooked? My artworks explore the methods of vividly reconstructing memories, resonating subjective experiences with the audience through the use of every element, including colour, sound, text and language.

(Please wear a headphone for optimal sound experience.)

This is an attempt to reconstruct carefree and cherished memories of my childhood through a playful amalgamation of sound and text. Creating a narrative around the past and present, around longing and estrangement.

One night in bed

As I heard the sounds of my breathing

the memories suddenly came to my mind

those safe and carefree times

Medium:

Video

Size:

00:03:36

(Please wear a headphone for optimal sound experience.)

This sound work is taken from my aunt's voice chat records. She passed away due to cancer on January 29th this year. We were very close, so I felt guilty for not seeing her before her last breath. I decided to do something about this situation. Using these recordings of our chat which, had become one of the things, still left with me, of her.

The audio has been divided into two parts: The first half of the work shows my chaotic and fretful state after I came to know about her demise. There is a long pause in the middle of the work indicating that I gradually calmed down as time went by. In the second half, have used her voice to try expressing regret as well as bidding farewell.

‘The time difference and distance confused me,

the memories messed me up.

Until one day,

I woke up,

and realized that you are not there anymore…’

Medium:

Video

Size:

00:02:22

death farewell memory moving-image

Let's make our Deathionary is research through practical workshops. The word "Deathionary" is composed of "Death" and "Dictionary". The whole idea is based on the hieroglyph of Chinese character, collecting the opinions of people from different backgrounds on death and making a Dictionary of a new language to interpret death globally.

The workshops will be launched on the show in RCA2023 at the Truman Brewery. Please don't hesitate to join!