NYAB Event - Yibin Tian "Our New York"

Yibin Tian "Our New York"

This event has ended.
At The Chelsea Art Museum
Media: Photography, Installation

Yibin Tian’s multi-media installation comprises C print photographs, three-dimensional sculptures, and video installation. Tian’s goal is to capture the effects that authoritarian Songun-ism (Military First) has on its citizenry. Tian uses color film and casual observation as his methodologies. Aside from his aesthetic contributions, Tian’s work holds relevance in its timely cultural and social value especially given the recent political crisis resulting from North Korean nuclear testing and Jongil Kim’s refusal to cooperate with international disarmament policy.
Our New York by Yibin Tian (a.k.a. Lao Liu or Old Six) is an installation that continues his last year’s series All for One and One for All. His work is a result of being reared in a totalitarian government in Bejing, China. This rigid environment provoked him to explore the contrary lifestyle of individualism. Many of the works express the North Korean Songun (military first) politics, yet simultaneously touch upon democratic values as they combine western figures and ideas. Tian’s photographs and sculptures of North Korean military authoritarianism (Songun) where a nation is at the service of its leader Jong-Il Kim, are metaphors for power. Juche is akin to a religious philosophy that espouses worship of a charismatic leader and is informed by Confucianist values advocating the notion of filial piety and familial hierarchy. While exhibiting the last series in New York the artist enacted a pre-set visual dialogue between western and eastern militarism by posing together North Korean officers juxtaposed against New York uniformed policemen.