Nanzhen Yang
About
Nanzhen Yang is an artist born in China and currently based in London.
Degree Details
Statement
In Nanzhen’s extensive investigation of mushrooms, she discusses the different tropes of mushroom in the context of politics, economics, and ecology. Nanzhen’s work refers to the massive worldwide production, transformation from natural resources to profit, and how mycelium works as a philosophical model to understand contemporary late-capitalism.
Nanzhen is currently working with mushrooms? Shroom….? Oooom???
Tickets to The Guided Tour
The work Tickets to The Guided Tour was inspired by a random online marketer. Someone sent me a message in Farsi after I had posted some pieces of mushroom drawings on my Instagram account. After translating it I knew that message just asking me if I needed some mushroom compost to grow fresh mushrooms. I was shocked by this efficient online searching and marketing behaviour and the impressive graphics of this company account as well. Then, I used those graphic resources as a kind of appropriation to create a fantasy mushroom compost factory and made video guidance for it.
In general, this unreal factory responds to the massive production and the worldwide transformation between natural resources and assets in the context of politics, economics, and ecology. Anthropologist Anna Tsing refers to mushrooms as a metaphor in her recent volume the mushroom at the end of world to offer a vision of a collective body that keeps nature, humans and contemporary late-capitalism in deep harmony. I made this 3D architectural walk-through video to visualize this vision and consider which kind of attitude we should have to face this massive global landscape in the Anthropocene which is filled with anxiety and general uncertainty.
Medium: 3D walkthrough video with soundtrack
Size: 6’05’’
Others
There is no 'first cause' from which all beings arose. There is nothing permanent (anicca), nothing substantial, no unique individual self in the nature of becoming and existence (anatta) because everything is a result of "dependent origination". There are no independent objects and independent subjects; there is fundamental emptiness in all phenomena and experiences.
When this exists, that comes to be. With the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be. With the cessation of this, that ceases.
— Samyutta Nikaya 12.61
Human, you must obtain mana from shaman to be able to transform between human to non-human, things, anything, everything in this magical adventure.
Awake and execute and let go...
* Narrated by the inspiring philosophy of Animism, and featuring an auditory feast from Artist/Producer Nanzhen Yang. "OTHERS" will give you a new perspective on the world we were.