Mr Lim’s Shop of Visual Treasures presents
HALF BAKED IDEAS AND A DOZEN CUPS OF TEA.
YANG JIE’S SOLO SHOW OF KINECTIC SCULPTUTURES
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Mr Lim’s Shop of Visual Treasures is pleased to present Yang Jie’s newest works in his solo exhibition, Half-Baked Ideas and a Dozen Cups of Tea. This exhibition will present interactive kinetic sculptures that display different types of performative gestures when activated by the audience. These new works extends from Yang Jie’s long-term artistic research on ‘tinkering’ as a method, treading on the boundary between industrial machinery and artisanal craft.
Having professionally trained as an engineer before swiftly turning to sculpture, Yang Jie’s praxis seeks to negotiate the relationship between objects and human behaviour through movement. Prototyping forms an important part of his ideation process, allowing him to realise or recreate observations that fascinate him. It is thus through the act of testing and creating that the artist investigates new possibilities and new ways of seeing.
Departing from industrial associations, the movements in this series of mechanically-powered sculptures reject the pursuit of function. As a tinkerer, Yang Jie takes commodities and reimagines them in alternative situations. His works manifest as combinations of everyday found objects that mimic the effects of human interventions and natural phenomena. The sculptures move with vague similarities to their everyday counterparts, presenting whimsical and uncanny visualisations of human-object relationships.
These kinetic sculptures, through their little repetitive gestures, replay again and again the different human movements that the artist remembers. These memories are subtle, minute, but poetic slivers of sensorial experiences that form his daily life. Playing with interactivity, Yang Jie presents a human-machine encounter laden with twists that ultimately leads to a meditation on memory, habit, and absence.
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ABOUT Yang Jie
b.25 May 1984
Yang Jie is a sculptor who draws inspiration from the intricate world of objects, whether they be furniture, machines, processes, stories, or ideas, Yang breathes new life into discarded and forgotten relics. His sculptures are born from repaired and found objects, transformed into kinetic artworks that come alive through interaction. At the core of his exploration lies a fascination with how objects crafted by human hands often take on new and unexpected meanings beyond their original intentions. Yang believes that art should not be a passive experience but a dynamic engagement with the viewer; blurring the lines between observer and participant, inviting viewers to become part of the artwork's narrative.
His projects include: …All the Kings Men (2024), a broken slab of granite stitched back together along Singapore River for a Public Art Initiative, commissioned by the Art House Limited; The Waiting Machine (2020), a solo exhibition of immersive kinetic sculptures at Comma Space, curated by Wang Ruobing; Sensory Anchors (2019), an installation of kinetic sound sculptures commissioned by Esplanade; Instant Citizen (2016), a collaboration with an architectural designer Fiona Tan, creating an installation of furniture and devices which challenge the way we ordinarily use things; the large scale installation ’Can I lend you my Umbrella?' (2011), a collaboration with video and performance artist, Ezzam Rahman; The Photographer, The Executioner’s Assistant (2014), at Gillman Barracks as well as Postcards from Earth (2011), with the Black Baroque Committee at The Objectifs, Singapore. He has also actively been involved with community art projects with the People’s association, creating Dining As Theatre (2018) with Syamil Dasuki, a kinetic installation and performance with a twist for the community to participate in.
For a more comprehensive view of the works, please visit https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YVTVnGBTFxo-JoWaRvkEVfWDMiadA-WE/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=112499595197994883527&rtpof=true&sd=true