Thursday, Jul 30, 2020
Yu Ji: PROTRUDE, 2020
HD video, 1 min
Credit: © Yu Ji, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. Camera: Tang Chao and Yu Ji. Images and edit: Lam Deng
Yu Ji’s short film PROTRUDE has the look and feel of an image and sound collage. Abstract and concrete sequences alternate frequently throughout the work. However, a certain narrative can still be traced. For instance, the film features passages from the performance Spring Up. In these sequences, Yu Ji crawls through a chaotic and largely unrecognizable space. Close-ups create a surreal, confused sense of displacement, which is articulated in a mood of uncertainty. The figure, always visible only from behind, seems to be looking for something or someone—or is she hiding? The narrative is deliberately kept open, offering a variety of interpretations.
Yu Ji, born in Shanghai in 1985, works with sculpture, installation, performance, and video to explore the narrative potential of places, architecture, and objects as well as concepts and conditions of the body. After receiving the HUGO BOSS ASIA ART prize in 2017, her works were shown at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Yu Ji is currently working on exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project in Shanghai and the Chisenhale Gallery in London.