Yimin Qiao is a multimedia narrator.
Her current work attempts to trigger interactivity with both the images she creates and the narrative, systemic structures of reality she questions.
'Observation' and 'Connection' are two keywords of her practice. Here, she is holding a great exhibition of human inventions she has collected. Meanwhile, she makes odd inventions subverting the ideas of the 'functional' and provoking connection.
What should we do when we are facing the ruins we left behind?
With the impact of the pandemic, structures and barriers rapidly appear whilst some spaces and objects lose their function. Dear audience, isn’t this a time for us to change their use and intention? When artworks lose their ideal spaces of display, how about turning existing objects into installations? The city itself is an exhibition hall to be toured and seen anew. Bank counters, bus stops, street lights, galleries, code signs, a weird chair with a dick... Why were they made and what for?
There is an alien who arrived at this strange time. It interpreted banal human inventions and cultural symbols and made ‘manuals’ for them. It created ‘A Great Exhibition’ as an echo of ‘The Great Exhibition’, the most successful and influential culture event of the 19th century, set in London in 1851. My exhibition houses a collection of this alien’s absurd whims. Join it, navigating the world where misunderstanding becomes a process of revelation of the structures that surround us. ‘A Great Exhibition’ will never be closed as long as we have the power of imagination to escape this man-made illusion.
