Yang Fudong

Yejiang/The Nightman Cometh no. 1, 2011

Narrative imagery and memorable motifs, a classic black-and-white aesthetic, photographic series as filmic sequences and films that form photographic seen moments into a story, the transformation of critical themes, and luxuriantly poetic, almost meditative images – all of this could be said of the artwork of Yang Fudong (and all of it would be equally controversial). To accompany the film Yejiang/The Nightman Cometh, 2011, the artist created a series of eight large format black-and-white photographs, which encapsulate, as it were, the atmosphere, motifs and scenic configurations, and the gaze directed at the individual protagonists, without any intention of providing “stills” that render the events of the film comprehensible. The two photographs which have been acquired for the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection present us with the four protagonists of the film. Photograph no. 1 places the young woman in the cheongsam – a classic Chinese style of dress, which is historically associated with Shanghai’s colonial era in the 1930s – in the centre stage. It is unclear whether the woman is posing dreamily or is staring far away with faint alarm.