When Peng Yun had her solo exhibition “She Says” at the AFA Macau, her works were mainly photography. Still images of subtle yet unyielding strength were used to describe women’s stories of youth. It was when Peng Yun has just arrived in Macao. As if a response to what she felt in the city, she explored and experimented. 

Life itself is interwoven and having a conversation with her work. After two years of growth, Peng Yun is now presenting her latest video and photography works at the AFA Beijing. Bringing her personal experiences and her feelings into the artworks, she is now reaching out to maturity of her unique expressions. 

Time is what links between photography and video. On the one-way road of the timeline, Peng Yun seldom turns back. Following the rhythm of nature, she walks along the path in simplicity and perseverance. This straightforward energy of hers, when applied in life, is a broad and spacious philosophy; when applied in her work, it is the art to be concise. In the video artwork of “Miss Lee has soft fingers and beautiful eyes”, a woman is holding a tomato in her hand. Looking into the space, she does not move. The video image appears to be without motion. As if expecting something to happen, the audience hesitates due to the stillness of the woman’s posture. After a long while of slow tension, when the sentiment peaks, the woman silently crushes the tomato in her hand, without any change of facial expression. When it reached the physical limit, the tears burst out from her eyes, along with the contact lenses, which were hanged on her face. This indicates the pain and depression which results in the explosion of the power, and which is, at the same time, inevitable. In the video work “Scissor”, Peng Yun envelops herself in black. Using the scissors to cut open her clothes, she is using the body to tell what is indescribable. It is an opening after rupture. In “Miss Melissa and Mr. Fish at 2:31pm”, a woman’s hand reaches toward a dead fish. Under the meticulous setting of the scene, the fondling between the hand and the body has unveiled the suppressed emotions into an unbearable bareness. 

All of these, as Life itself, are so simple, and yet so incomprehensible.
Peng Yun’s work is about her ability to moderate tension. It is at the same time tender and violent; sensitive but not weak, painful yet it denies sadness. 

The choice of artistic expressions is the key factor for an artist. Peng Yun’s artistic medium is multidisciplinary. The base of this comes from her earlier artistic training in oil painting at the Sichuan Fine Art Institute.  While later at the China Academy of Art she continues her studies under the guidance of Professor Zhang Pei Li, which has led her toward a more solid and mature understanding of video as an art form. Her steadfast and persevere attitude is now being revealed in this exhibition. Peng Yun is talented in merging her feelings and experiences into the expressions of her art. The current exhibition is a landmark along the important changes in her life and we can see the thinking about the pains and suffers in her works. As she described herself, “I have to use what I love the most as a mean to complete the farewell”, “I have to be honest to what my heart wants to say.” This is an established and powerful revelation of her art as well as in her personal life, which leads to a promising future that we can expect.
- Alice Kok, Curator

*image (left)
© Peng Yun 
courtesy of the artist and AFA Beijing