Yang Na is an unequivocal beauty, first-class both physically and in temperament. When I first got acquainted with her, I wondered what sort of imago such a beauty’s works would hold. My curiosity greatly aroused, I was still transfixed upon opening the images she sent me. Her works are immensely dazzling and dazzling in so natural a way that my delight and enthusiasm springs up. Like many a young artist, Yang Na enjoys conveying her impressions of life with a mixture of real and imagined language and conceptions. Unlike that of the preceding generation artists, Yang Na’s enlightenment is very representational: beauties, beautiful sceneries, fine wines and a variety of fair but false objects are ruthlessly piled together, creating an illusionary and blurry imago, the like of which I have never seen in general cartoon paintings.

　　Yang Na grows up in an era in which China sees superfast growth in her political and economical development. China’s long historical tradition and fast development make this highly complex country exceptionally vibrant, dynamic and open to all kinds of possibilities. The elite culture of modernism and the cultural logic of post-modernism are imbedded in all facets of life, while both individuality and the society have become infinitely bloated and contradictory. As onlookers of the state of the world, the artists keep a unique and sensitive eye on social development, identify problems and raise them. Yang Na detects through female eyes her impression of social development, and with brushes expresses her personal life experience. Rapid social development also brings with it cultural phenomena contrary to traditional code of ethics. “That is vanity. In an age of bubbles, extensive public audition, false balloting, neoclassic politics, digital economy, beauty effects and gorgeous advertisements sink into oblivion people’s perception of danger and pain. People have accustomed themselves to appraising people or objects by their external packaging. Young girls wish to swap love for jewels. Newspapers comprise of real estate news while plastic surgery forms the backside of banknote. Concealed by bubbles, disproportionate objects appear colorful and eye-catching. But the truth will eventually surface.” (Quoted from an interview with Yang Na). The image of the beauty, Na Na, under Yang Na’s brush, is tremendously alluring, narcissistic and self-centered. Exaggerated cartoon images and fair genuine skin are seamlessly integrated, transporting spectators to a world that is half-real and half illusory. This happens to coincide with the impressions the age leaves us, with the boundary between the real and the imaginary blurred by commercialization, globalization and networking. Although fervently in pursuit of individuality and egotism, people in this era generally find it exceedingly difficult to find their own self. Materially dissimilated, people born in this age must cope with and think over issues entirely different from those confronted by stars such as Marilyn Monroe.

　　Often depicting microcosmic melodramatic scenes, Yang Na’s works are often loaded with a gigantic Noah's Ark, which bears a multitude of people and a wealth of information. A number of trendy and classical figures are crammed onboard the Ark. To put it in another way, her stage-like works resemble a bathtub jammed with all kinds of symbols and images of Miss Na Na, which Yang Na creates and quotes. A material replacement for Yang Na’s spiritual imagination, this composition may be seen as a symbolic representation of a vast and void material world. The various elements that fill up this space (such as luxury furniture, enchanting female figures, varied kinds of exaggerated sexually suggestive organs, assorted figures with an air of Animamix aesthetics and violence aesthetics) are the critique and divesture of the material world by Yang Na’s private sentiments. Perhaps, the excessive splendor and disarray of this world have upset Yang Na’s world of rationality. Alternatively, perhaps, it is Yang Na’s keen desire that propels her to assemble into her works treasures that she has been seeking, thus giving rise to a peculiar kind of critique of the rational world by the irrational. However, as people of this world are often oblivious to things and people they are best acquainted with, Yang Na’s works empower people to relish and seek characters and treasures of interest of all kinds, neglecting in the meantime general lamentation and valuation judgment, to which Yang Na is evidently no stranger. Greedy and ambitious artists are generally ill satisfied with mere planar depictions of the material world; they are keener on going deep into the spiritual world or on looking for more profound meaning. Yang Na keeps blowing up the balloon of art to portray the imaginative world. She puts the imago of art into the blown balloon. With its origins based in reality, this imaginary and vaguely discernable world shows the conscience of the young generation of intellectuals, and merits cherishing.

　　Text by Liu Chunfeng

　　January 24, 2009

　　Written at National Art Museum of China