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Yuxiao is an artist whose work spans various mediums, including photography, video, printmaking, and painting. She carefully selects each medium based on the unique needs of her projects, allowing her to effectively convey her conceptual ideas surrounding memory, emotion, and storytelling.
Choosing the Right Medium
Yuxiao primarily uses photography and printmaking because they uniquely capture and preserve fleeting memories and emotions. Photography’s rapid shutter speed mirrors the ephemeral nature of memories, while printmaking's tactile quality allows for a deeply personal engagement with her art, incorporating elements like dreams, familiar streets, and sentimental objects.
Collaboration plays a significant role in Yuxiao’s creative process. By working with family members across generations, she gains unique insights into their shared history. For example, she directs her mother to photograph her grandmother and her belongings via video calls and includes recordings of her grandmother’s daily humming as a soundscape. These collaborations help maintain and celebrate her roots, creating a multi-sensory experience that is both personal and universal. Through these mediums, Yuxiao aims to preserve precious connections and memories, ensuring they remain vivid and alive.
'小凤(Phoenix at Sundown)': A Deeply Personal Exploration
"小凤(Phoenix at Sundown)" is a profoundly personal project that explores memory loss and familial bonds, inspired by Yuxiao’s six years of living with her grandmother, who had dementia. Her grandmother’s diagnosis was heartbreaking, but through the unwavering love and care from Yuxiao’s mother and aunts, dementia became a poignant chapter of her grandmother's life rather than a tragedy.
The project reflects the vivid yet fragmented world her grandmother inhabited, with deliberately blurry and abstract photographs capturing her perspective within Yuxiao's memory during those years, where clarity and confusion coexist. A powerful moment in this journey was when her grandmother "stole" an apple and hid it in her bedside drawer. This act, and the discovery of the rotten apple, encapsulated the bittersweet reality of her condition. Yuxiao recreated this experience by letting apples rot in her studio, using their scent to evoke the same emotional response.
Collaborating with her mother and aunt across continents via video calls, Yuxiao directed them to document her grandmother’s daily life, maintaining a vital connection to her family. "Phoenix at Sundown" is a tribute to her grandmother’s strength and the enduring love surrounding her, exploring the complex emotions of watching a loved one navigate dementia.
'Letter to My Father': Bridging Emotional Distances
In her book project "Letter to My Father," Yuxiao uses the setting sun to symbolize the connection between herself and her father despite the distance and time difference. Growing up in the house her father designed, Yuxiao was captivated by the seamless blend of creativity and precision. As a child, she would sit by his side, immersed in the world of architectural design software, crafting her own imaginary houses. This early experience sparked a deep love for art that has guided her journey ever since.
With a 12-hour time difference, her sunset is her father's sunrise, embodying their shared yet separate worlds. This imagery bridges personal and emotional distances, evoking a sense of closeness and longing. Yuxiao cherishes the memories of sitting in the back seat of her father's car, waiting for him to park and say, "Wake up, we’re home." The response to this exploration has been deeply moving, resonating with many who understand the profound bond between parent and child.
Balancing Art and Education
Yuxiao recently began teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute as an AICAD Fellow and has been teaching at MassArt since earning her MFA. Her teaching encompasses various media, mirroring her own artistic practice. She has led courses such as Inside the Camera, which delves into analog photography, and Visual Language, which examines composition, color, and contemporary art-making through different materials and media. Another course, Time, focuses on video, sound, animation, and bookmaking, all structured around themes of memory and truth in imagery.
Balancing her roles as an artist and educator allows Yuxiao to contribute meaningfully to both fields. Teaching requires her to clearly articulate her concepts, deepening her understanding and refining her techniques. She sees it as a collaborative exchange where she learns as much from her students as they learn from her. A student at MassArt inquired about her artwork, reigniting her commitment to her own creative journey and reminding her to keep dreaming and expressing those dreams through art. This reciprocal relationship is the essence of teaching—an ongoing exchange of inspiration and encouragement. It's not just about imparting knowledge, witnessing students’ growth, and helping them discover their unique artistic voices; it's about mutual growth and discovering light in each other.
International Recognition and Broader Dialogue
Yuxiao’s work has been exhibited internationally and nationally, and published in various magazines. These platforms allow her to reach diverse audiences and foster broader dialogue. Each platform gives her the opportunity to share her explorations of memory, emotion, and storytelling with people from different cultural backgrounds, enriching her perspective and practice.
By sharing these intimate and emotional experiences, Yuxiao offers solace and reminds others they are not alone, encouraging them to find beauty and meaning in life's fleeting moments. Sharing stories is one of the most meaningful aspects of being an artist, as it brings strength to those who have similar experiences. For example, her colorful photograph series, "小凤(Phoenix at Sundown)", aims to inspire and uplift those navigating similar paths. She hopes her work serves as both a source of strength and a gentle reminder to embrace every moment.
Through her multifaceted approach, Yuxiao continues to explore and document the intricate connections between memory, emotion, and storytelling, creating art that resonates on a deeply personal and universal level.
Author: Zin
More info:
Website: https://muyuxiao.com
Online gallery: https://www.jaamzin.com/yuxiao-mu
Catalogue:
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