A synthetic realm unfolds, meticulously engineered by global startups. Everything is bound together by a dark slime—an oily, recurrent presence that merges Jurassic-era flora with plastic plant decorations destined for shopping malls. Petroleum, in both refined and unrefined forms, opens up a portal to the gory logics of petro-capitalism and global extraction practices.
Artist Yuyan Wang often focuses on matter, particularly on industrial and processed products that not only surround us, but whose dynamics of production and distribution govern our very lives. In GREEN GREY BLACK BROWN, she traces oil as a vectorial element, examining it from its natural sludge-state to its so-called capitalist fulfillment in the production of plastic. By juxtaposing natural images with those of extraction and segments of industrial realities, what Wang captures within this line of production is a two-way paradox: what is extracted from the earth becomes plastic, and, in turn, plastic is transformed into artificial flowers and gawky garlands whose only purpose is to imitate nature. GREEN GREY BLACK BROWN examines the absurdity of artificial paradises and the extractivist slime that ensures their existence. (Dora Leu)
Yuyan Wang, born in China and currently based in Paris, is a filmmaker and video artist. Her works involve recycled materials from the industrial sphere of image production, tracing their mutation and proliferation within the digital frameworks and representations. Her work has been showcased at Tate Modern, Palais de Tokyo, the 12th Berlin Biennale and various festivals, such as Berlinale, IFFR, European Media Art Festival, Indie Lisboa, receiving numerous awards.
