MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique is delighted to present the works of Wang Yuyang, an artist whose work explores and questions the role of technology in the contemporary world, specifically our interactions with the digital and the robotic. His interest lies in the artistry brought about by outdated technology, destructive aesthetics, and material waste.

Employing various artistic mediums such as sculpture, painting, photography and video, Wang creates works using emergent media as well as everyday objects to create the illusion of futurism, without deliberately emphasizing the novelty of technology. He is recognized by his use of humour, fiction, and spectacle to explore and reflect upon the relationship between the human body, personal experience, and cognition.

The connection between human and machine is at the core of Wang’s works. His series, Breathe, presents a collection of inanimate objects, such as television sets and ATM machines, that inhale and exhale. Through this series, Wang investigates the relationship between “control” and “controlled” by transforming man-made objects into breathable entities. The artist explains that these objects lack ‘life,’ as they are created and used by men. But in fact, it is these artifacts that control us to some extent, changing our lives and even our understanding of the world around us. Machines such as mobile phones and cars are shifting our sense of time and space. The same is also true for cash machines, as they become an essential link in our everyday lives.

Today, we may find that the objects that surround us are all man-made, not natural. In other words, nature has undeniably been transformed by humans. The artist explains that when these objects become “alive” such as humans are, we can begin to have conversations with them. Ultimately, Wang’s goal is to urge his audience to reflect upon the relationship between us and man-made objects — one of equality and coexistence.

The space of MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique holds particular significance to the artist and his work. Wang points out the similarity between the gallery space self-service banks on the streets of France. When the audience enters, they may not presume the space belongs to a gallery, but to a functional workstation, only to find an ATM machine moving and breathing.

Through the tone, composition, and narrative of his pieces, Wang creates an ambiguity in his novel approach to sculpture and movement aimed to shift the connection between man and cognition. His practice urges viewers to enter a paradigm that reduces the role of consciousness from judging observer to interactive participant with the art – a reality designed to reconstruct the definition of the truth.