The works on display for the present exhibition at the Whitebox Art Center are all based on his recent artistic creations including "Beijing Discard", "Cut", "Ladder", and "Bell". In the "Beijing Discard", the artist brought together the discarded articles from the demolished Heiqiao art district and other residential areas and assembled them in resin-cast piers, symbolizing the "underclass" in addition to the artists' surviving circumstances straightforwardly. The "Ladder" directs toward our illusion of future, while the "Bell" functions as a warning like "for whom the bell tolls". Meanwhile, the exhibition title "A Gust of Wind through Beijing" together with the neon lights on the maps, in a metaphorical way, indicate that our everyday life is in all likelihood about to be affected by unexpected demolishment at any time, just as the "Cut" demonstrates that everything is unexceptionally exposed in direct sunlight. Consequently, controlled over by power politics, "escape" of the underclass and their "being homeless" have illustrated the most wintery scene of this winter in Beijing. Beijing, like a besieged fortress, has distinguished between urban and rural areas, and established a standard set for social stratum of people. All of this demonstrates that there appears to be a potential conflict among the exhibition as a whole and the works in display, that is to say, all of the realistic survival simply indicates a sense of uncontrollable uncertainty. Our lives are supposed to be significant, however, we fail to find out the meaning of life. In other words, the significance of life has been eroded by the powerful and capital forces more and more brutally. Thus, all of this helps locate the specific objective of this exhibition of Yang Qian in a specified time and place.

　　Things invariably change faster than time goes by, China today is definitely not what you imaged yesterday, and lives could be devastated without lapse of time. Needlessly, the future is still suspending in uncertainties, meanwhile, even the "moment" is subject to unpredictable changes. Just like Qu Yuan depicted, "The keynote bell they break and discard, but make a thunderous noise beating clay pots", such a crisis allows the most valuable way of living to get marginalized. The value view dominated by power in addition to the competitiveness of market economy, in the absence of an exceeding scheme of moral rectification, will inevitably result in lack of legitimacy of the fundamental justice and right of existence for human beings. This situation triggers nothing but a kind of universal humiliation to the society, which puts to shame and lingers in reality constantly and eternally. In the past, anyone else could possibly be responsible for your misfortunes, however, now you are getting more accustomed to admitting responsibilities for yourselves. The ethnic groups and the inter-ethnic relations, however, are nothing more than a variable in the complex equation indicating China's social realities, just like what Yang Qian's recent works indicate, things remain, people remain as ever too, however, the current political situation has been worsening sternly just as the wind blows in gusts. The wind in Beijing, in this sense, is as sharp as a knife.

　　Yang Qian's new works are unexceptionally based on the wastes as a result of demolishment. Featuring a simplistic sense of direct use, the artist has reconstructed another sort of reality out of these unwanted ready-mades, which suggests a combined sense of severity and tragedy and utterly demonstrates Yang Qian's furious intensity and contempt. By transforming social affairs and phenomena into a thorough visual form and making the most of it in a shocking way, the grotesque and ruthless situations in China are prominently reflected. Yang Qian integrates his transformational understanding of life into the formal transformation of the installation in an artistic way, all of which metaphorically implies the alienation in terms of human nature, psychology and sub-consciousness especially the distorted human nature under the circumstances of erosion of power. Through these works, Yang Qian's objective is to endow the primal ready-mades in the installation with a visual effect in view of content and form at meantime. Henceforth, the visual language happens to shift from surrealistic to realistic level as a way of expressing Yang Qian's contemplating and questioning of the surviving circumstance of his own. Besides, the idea is to pay attention and raise awareness of the currently difficult situations in the society of China, and to endow with realistic, fundamental power in a comprehensively realistic and virtual way. It is precisely because he is keenly aware of such an unstable public space, throughout his new works there is indistinctly a sense of struggle. This is all about Yang Qian's character and obsession as an artist rather than a kind of humane care in the bottom of his heart. In the process of interpreting these works, therefore, we could profoundly perceive that Yang Qian's fragments of passion are supposed to be worthy of respect, which also indicate a sort of necessarily social responsibility that every contemporary artist should possibly take. In other words, Yang Qian has created an indistinguishing scene in a virtual manner, presenting a demonized Beijing theatrical stage in a dreamlike yet realistic way. The idea, in a nonverbal way, suggests that our lives are by no means in our hands, being controlled by an invisible power, in this sense, our dwelling and travelling seem to be frustrating and fragile. All of this has also mercilessly broken the myths of the officially-advocated "modernization" into fragments, fragmentizing people's expectations and illusions of the Utopia in their mind. What is worth emphasizing is that, by exaggerating and distorting the everyday lives in the capital city namely Beijing, Yang Qian didn't convert it to a terrifying nightmare thoroughly separated from our daily living experiences in the city, in effect, he attempted to warn and reflect on the various drawbacks in the process of modernization by enhancing the scene he created. In this way, apart from the criticism, the artist was to express his good wishes for a most suitable place for human habitation as well as the fact that human beings shouldn't be coerced into the spiritual depravity and moral decline as a result of material development.

　　Delightful feelings may not be devolved to others, however, painful and resentful emotions can be passed on to others. The difference between sadness and happiness determines the artist's attention and cultural responsibility in a pure sense. What is on view is a record or metaphor of realistic situations in China rather than a visual field created by Yang Qian at the Whitebox Art Center, in addition, it happens to artistically advocate for "them" and the surviving of themselves at an opportune time. Again, it allows us in a self-righteous sate to suddenly realize that our lives are closely confined within cruel limits, like an electric shock, all is stimulating the unspeakable side of the reality. In fact, apart from simply recording such an occurrence in the society, through the ready-mades related to the incident, Yang Qian also considered and transformed them into intuition of realistic situations, demonstrating a sense of consideration of reality as well as an uncovering, critical viewpoint. These works reveal what occurred, outlining the cause and effect behind. We clearly perceive that the extremely heartbreaking and literally disappointing incidents are still going on. The fleeing and vanishing of those people, in effect, are right around us.

(Translated by Ma Zhengtang)

作者：冯博一（Feng,Boyi）