Pioneering video and multimedia artist Wang Jianwei is known for his conceptually complex, multi-faceted explorations of the contemporary Chinese reality. Using elements of theatre, philosophical inquiry, artistic methodology and "scripted accident," he seeks to illuminate the in-between, that poorly-defined grey zone where most of us live—and where most of the really interesting things happen.

In Yellow Signal , Wang Jianwei's first UCCA solo show, the familiar yellow traffic light is both signal and signifier, demarcating the territory between red and green, permission and prohibition. An exhibition designed specifically for UCCA's Big Hall, Yellow Signal is an evolving process, an ongoing exhibition that will unfold in four consecutive parts.

Chapter One: Making do with Fakes features eight videos projected upon four large gateways, or portals. Exhibition-goers can choose from which side they enter the portals, which in turn affects the way they experience the projected images. Chapter Two: "We know what we are doing..." is an installation of several thousand basketballs and a maze of linked basketball hoops snaking throughout the exhibition hall. Chapter Three: Internal Conflict presents a series of dynamic mixed-media installations, while Chapter Four: Go to the Conference Room on the 13th Floor for Free Films features a rubber staircase and an attempt to create a "physically impossible space."

Yellow Signal is an open invitation for audiences to stay tuned, to return again and again to experience each stage as it happens, and to become an integral part of an evolving process.

- Jérôme Sans, UCCA Director.


In Wang Jianwei's Yellow Signal , he presents us with a number of opposing concepts: motion versus rest, clarity versus obscurity. Superficially, these binaries seem to help us to make sense of the world, but in fact, their blurred interactions offer us even more complex truths. This is where the frame of reference becomes important: with the yellow signal being both a point of reference and a point of transition, "stop" and "go" are simultaneously valid courses of action. On the other hand, taking the green light or red light as a reference leaves us only one valid choice, either "stop" or "go".

Yellow Signal is a series of works that reveal how identity and symbols are transformed (or transposed) when the frame of reference changes. The yellow signal's "legal state of limbo" transcends epistemological boundaries. The absence of a transitional point generates two distinctly antagonistic states that can only negate, usurp or trade places with each other. Of course, a simplified binary world may be much more acceptable and easily understood, but it tends to bury or gloss over issues of pluralism and authenticity. As the saying goes, "Spectators see the game more clearly than the players." Perhaps this is what exhibition-goers are meant to ponder: whether or not they can recognize how their perspective shifts when frames of reference change or interfere.

- Zheng Yan, UCCA Art Department Director

ARTIST STATEMENT

When the yellow light comes face to face with its two rightful opponents, red and green, it signals the termination of the given right of green, and the negation of the given right of red. It is only when the other two lose their monopoly on dominance that the yellow signal can gain its rightful place as a legitimate state of "in-between." In its dual role as obstacle and intermediary, the yellow signal transforms restriction and delay into a tangible, recognizable "object."

As both a symptom and a sign, Yellow Signal offers us an alternative way of seeing and understanding. We attempt to establish a contradictory and confusing setting whose constant state l ies somewhere between permission and prohibition, activity and passivity. Will repeated interruption and modification to this setting cause it to become a collection of disparate and incompatible elements, a community incapable of merging?

- Wang Jianwei, January 18, 2011

Time Table of the Four Chapters

Chapter One:    Making do with Fakes  (April 1st – 24th )
Chapter Two:   “We know what we are doing…”  (April 26th – May 15th)
Chapter Three: Internal Conflict  (May 17th – June 5th )
Chapter Four:   Go to the Conference Room on the 13th Floor for Free Films (June 9th – 26th )