Aesthetica Magazine has just published an interview with Yan on the exhibition Three Easier Pieces. 

To quote from the interview: 

A: There’s a real feeling of play and tongue and cheek narrative in Three Easier Pieces. There’s also this sense of, oh yes, these photographs now represent the world around us. What inspired the title?

Y: Good question. I’m actually inspired by Marina Abramovic’s Seven Easy Pieces (2005) which, among other things, made me realise that originality may not be the only source of authority in art. In her seven pieces, Marina still had one of her own — The Artist is Present. So I thought that I’d do something even easier — I’d make no “original” works, only re-stages and appropriations. Of course, there has been nothing easy about it. Each one requires so much research, preparation, and investment. On average, one piece takes about a year to make. Since they’re so hard but there is no ‘original’, Three Easier Pieces feels like a suitable title. Ha!

To read the whole article, click on the above picture or here. 

Interview by Chloe Elliott. 

Image: After 'Olympia, 1863', 2023_Stage. ©Yan Wang Preston.