Bai Ye’s photos are made with his mobile phone and a flashlight in abandoned buildings often inhabited by anonymous figures. They are alien and haunting landscapes imbued with the hope of transcendence and flight but still mired in a dark oppressive reality. The central focal point in his photos is a burning white pupil of light from which all else is illuminated, unlike that of a human eye or dark star that sees by consuming light. Bai Ye’s imagery is enigmatic but occasionally a clue is left behind to give you a foothold of meaning; a cigarette butt, a stone, a strand of barbed wire, moon, clouds... but this trail of crumbs is short lived. What seem to be moonlit nighttime skies are really just opaque concrete walls. What appears to be a way out of one’s imprisonment is just an illusion. But in this place even illusions are welcomed and provide a ray of hope for the freedom of a brighter tomorrow. Also included in Unapproachable Light are Bai Ye’s video observations of the strange world around him in short abstracted daily actions, places, and sounds; emotional, provocative, and haunting microscopic animations from life.