Still from Xin Yunpeng, Faucet, 2018. Dual channel video, 1’24″ each

de Sarthe is pleased to announce the opening of Xin Yunpeng’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and first solo presentation in Hong Kong, opening on Saturday, 22 September. The show features both new and old work, spanning the past decade of the artist’s production. Utilizing constructed social experiments, meticulously edited film, and simple technological manipulations Xin Yunpeng wrestles with latent socio-political issues and expresses a studied visual language.

The earliest work included in the show is Cream of Mushroom Soup (2008), in which Xin Yunpeng uses a digital camera to record coins dropping into a can of soup, touching on the impact and influence of capitalism. In another work, 20140828 (2014), the artist erects a film set and hires an actor to perform a death scene. However, after the actor “dies,” Xin Yunpeng’s never instructs him to “cut.” This allows the unsuspecting individual to navigate the situation on his own.

In Handsome (2011), Liar (2012), and Jump (2013) the artist cleverly constructs and films various types of relationships to address binary political metaphors. In these artworks his own physical participation is not merely captured but also carefully portrayed through video.

In 20130329 (2013) and Faucet (2018) a single video is divided and played across two screens, and in Goddess (2018) permanently broken digital ink screens are put on display. These works give everyday life a new form, and mutate it for a moment. Through this process the artworks unravel our sense of time and understanding of human experience.

In Mother (2017) the artist furthers an investigation into the vehicle of video art, pushing form to act as meaning itself. With a single fixed camera angle, he renders a detailed and vivid soundscape that permeates throughout an entire room to form a narrative around the sound of his mother’s prayers.