Yan Wang Preston’s print After ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, c.1817’_9’53”, 12 Dec 2022 is included in a new exhibition Presence: The Figure in British Postwar and Contemporary Sculpture at Messums West. A major survey show, the exhibition presents iconic works from thirty-one British sculptors including Laurence Edwards, Antony Gormley, Tim Lewis, Henry Moore, among others. Wang Preston is the only photographer included in the show.

The curator Wilfred Wright states that ‘to evoke (directly or indirectly) the living presence of humanity in an inanimate object has been a central preoccupation of art since its earliest incarnations, and Western art history has been dominated by the presence of the human figure as a vehicle for creative expression, helping us as a species to reflect on and understand ourselves and others. Figurative sculpture, in particular, presents the artist’s vision of humanity in a uniquely visceral way.’

The inclusion of Wang Preston’s performative and photographic work in a sculpture exhibition invites an extended understanding of her work while reconfiguring our understanding of the figurative sculpture. The image itself is from her ongoing project After ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, c.1817’, for which she and her volunteers stand nude on an exposed outcrop, in all weathers, for as long as they can endure. The performances are carried out at Langfield Common within a post-industrial and rural landscape near her home in West Yorkshire. Referencing to Friedrich’s iconic work while critically re-examining the Romantic tradition in perceiving the land, the participatory project explores the contemporary relationship between Britain’s multi-ethnic communities and the land in a manner that is as fundamental and holistic as the naked body. Each durational performance, including the body and the land with all its natural and cultural elements, is photographed and filmed. Upon completion, the project aims to produce an immersive visual-audio installation to create an embodied and deeply engaging experience for the viewers.

Interestingly, although the project’s original reference is Friedrich’s painting, the actual performances strongly align the work with Gormley’s Another Place in which one hundred male statues made of cast iron are immersed by the tides twice a day at Crosby Beach in Merseyside. The sea water, with all its power, is replaced here by the eternal and often fearsome wind. If a sculpture can be understood as a three-dimensional object enduring time and space, then the performances indeed produce temporary and living sculptures made of human flesh. 

The print featured in the Presence exhibition is produced from Wang Preston’s own performance on the 12 December 2022 when a rare temperature inversion after a heavy snow fall formed a landscape as close as possible to the one painted by Friedrich. She managed just under 10 minutes on the freezing rock---some of the most heightened minutes of her life.

The archival print is measured at 95cm by 75cm, the same size to Friedrich’s painting, in an edition size of 3+2APs. Please contact if there is an interest in collecting the work.