Yuehan Hao, a visual artist born in 2000, has already made a significant impact on the international art scene with her powerful and introspective photography. A graduate of Kede College of Capital Normal University, Yuehan’s work combines documentary and conceptual images to explore the complex relationships between life, free consciousness, and bodily imagery. Her creations have been exhibited in cities around the world, including Shanghai, Beijing, Greenville, São Paulo, and Arles, and her work has been featured in art magazines, reaching a global audience. We are proud to feature Yuehan in our exhibition ‘Art Heals.’ We had the privilege of discussing her artistic journey, creative process, and the themes that permeate her work.
A Journey Rooted in Art and Life
“My mother is the one I credit for my interest in art,” Yuehan begins. Growing up in a military family where her maternal grandfather and father served in the Army, Yuehan lived in a conservative and repressed atmosphere. “We all hid our sincere feelings and thoughts,” she recalls. However, her mother, a passionate lover of life and art, maintained a reasonable distance from the rigid family structure. “She often took me to museums, movies, and introduced me to music and books, all while keeping it hidden from my father.” These early experiences sparked Yuehan’s lifelong love for art and culture.
Her journey into photography began during a difficult time in high school when she was suffering from depression. “By chance, I found my mother’s old point-and-shoot camera and began capturing everyday moments as a way to divert my attention from the circumstances,” she says. This practice soon evolved into a passion, leading her to pursue a photography major at Kede College. “Photography has seamlessly integrated into my life, becoming both a healing practice and a form of visual creation.”
Themes of Life, Consciousness, and Bodily Imagery
Yuehan’s artworks often originate from everyday observations and reflections, aiming to explore the relationship between life, free consciousness, and bodily imagery. Her works are deeply personal and introspective.
“So far, I have completed two significant pieces,” she explains.
Time (2021) reflects the longstanding fears of nuclear and radioactive contamination in eastern coastal China, exploring the confrontation between human nature and disaster. Lies in Stopping (2021–2023), inspired by the poignant end of her mother’s life, rearrange the temporal and spatial elements associated with her mother’s past, present, and demise. “This piece discusses the dialectical and contradictory relationship between the end of life and the preservation of photography,” Yuehan notes, prompting contemplation on the notion that life resides in moments of stillness.
A Dialectical Creative Process
Yuehan’s creative process is deeply influenced by the dialectical-materialist theory of knowledge.
“I absorb inspiration from my interest and curiosity, which then develops into rational knowledge,” she explains.
Drawing from Heidegger’s concept of “being towards death,” Yuehan constructs her pieces around themes of crisis, deficit, and internal spirit, often revolving around photography.
“I believe that methods such as exhibitions, books, and photography extend and integrate into a complete creative process,” she adds.
She emphasises her desire to establish communication with the world through her artworks.
Analog and Digital Techniques
As a photography major, Yuehan has spent considerable time mastering both analog and digital processes, often working in monochrome. “As Roland Barthes wrote in Camera Lucida (1980), ‘All those young photographers who are at work in the world, determined upon the capture of actuality, do not know they are agents of Death,’” she quotes. This philosophy resonates deeply with her work, leading her to apply analog technology to pieces addressing issues of actuality.
“I see myself as an ‘executioner,’ holding actuality in black-and-white analog film,” she explains.
In her re-creation works, Yuehan also utilizes digital technology, blurring the lines between reality and the conceptual.
Evolution Through Diverse Art Forms
Yuehan’s work has evolved significantly over time. Initially limited to documentary photography, her exposure to a professional art school environment broadened her artistic horizons. “The rich artistic environment of the university led me to explore painting, designing, and short film shooting,” she says. This exposure helped her develop a more diverse perspective on her work. Influenced by conceptual photographers like Robert Cumming and Suzy Lake, Yuehan began integrating documentary and conceptual photography into her practice. “I’m particularly interested in discovering the sparks that might fly from the collision between literature and photography,” she notes, aiming to create works that critique social phenomena and are imbued with philosophical thought.
A Significant Influence: Frida Kahlo’s Henry Ford Hospital (1932)
If Yuehan had to choose one artwork that holds special meaning for her, it would be Frida Kahlo’s Henry Ford Hospital (1932). “During kindergarten, I liked to go to my mother’s room to look through an illustration book of human body medicine,” she recalls. One day, she discovered a painting used as a bookmark in the book, which depicted a world where she was unborn. “It felt like my life had been changed forever from that day,” Yuehan says, describing how the painting’s imagery of pain, loss, and love resonated with her deeply.
Influences and Inspirations
Yuehan is influenced by a wide range of artists and filmmakers. Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki’s Sentimental Journey, Winter Journey (1971), which depicts his love, grief, and sadness for his wife, helped Yuehan find her own perspective in her work. American photographer Dru Donovan’s exploration of the body and emotion in relation to social identities has also had a profound impact on Yuehan’s creations. Additionally, the slow cinema of directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Tsai Ming-liang plays an important role in her work. “Their poetic and sensitive visual language, along with their humanistic concerns for solitude, constantly inspire me,” she says. Yuehan also credits Marina Abramović with guiding her to think beyond flat perspectives and explore the boundaries between the body and space in her work.
Challenges as a Young Artist
“The biggest challenge I have faced is to survive,” Yuehan states candidly.
She explains the difficulty of sustaining a career as an artist in China, where the art market often does not provide sufficient support for emerging artists. “As a young Chinese artist, I am pessimistic about the art markets in China,” she admits, noting that she must find other work to support herself, which limits her creative time. This challenge, shared by many young artists in China, leads to a rapid production of similar works to make profits, stifling meaningful artistic development.
“Now that I have graduated, I intend to study art further at a postgraduate school in a country with a more optimal art environment,” she adds, hoping to make an impact on the art environment and market in China through her efforts.
Viewers’ Takeaway
Yuehan prefers not to interfere with how viewers interpret her work. “I tend not to interfere with viewers’ thoughts. They could feel free to take anything they want,” she says. Yuehan believes that those who see her work and read about her will find what they are looking for.
Cultural and Personal Influences
Growing up in northern China in a military family, Yuehan’s art is influenced by the tension between individualism and collectivism.
“My art tends to swing, in a subtle manner, between the individual and the group, the subject and the object, probing into their relations,” she explains.
As a fan of Chinese philosophy, particularly Taoism, Yuehan’s work reflects the dialectic unity of opposites and the concept of non-being, aiming to create a natural and harmonious coexistence in her artworks.
Yuehan Hao’s photography is a profound exploration of life, consciousness, and identity. Her journey from a repressive upbringing to becoming a visual artist with an international presence is a testament to her resilience and creativity. Through her work, Yuehan invites viewers to reflect on the complexities of existence, free consciousness, and the transient nature of life. As she continues to evolve and push the boundaries of her art, we look forward to seeing how Yuehan’s unique perspective will continue to inspire and challenge the art world.
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