- Venue
- Cornerhouse
- Location
- North West England
This exhibition has already finished I am sorry to say (bad reviewer!), but I still wanted to write something about it because a) it deserved to be seen b) It represents a significant development and period of Yung’s career. I went to see this exhibition twice, partly to attend Jay’s talk on my second visit, but also because there was so much in it, I think I worked out that you need over three hours to view all of the works. The exhibition shows work gathered while on a research trip from San Francisco to Hong Kong, where Yung was seemingly in search of something about her own identity. Her grandmother features as do mosquito bites (felt itchy as the artist rubs creams into hundreds of bites, but I could not look away!), temples and rollercoasters.
I was drawn to the exhibition specifically because I knew the artist had been to Sarah Winchester’s house, one that she built continuously for 30 odd years at the instruction of spirits. It is an amazing example of outsider architecture and Yung interviews the director of the house (it’s now a visitor attraction) as well as filming a tour guide. The director and tour guide read almost from an identical script, because they know the house’s story so well. But the tour guide is über-sincere and gushing, while the director is pretty factual and sceptical; this contrast made me laugh often and is somthing the artist is very good at including in her works.
The gallery is divided through doorways and dividers, a nod to the Winchester house, but also a way to allow the viewer to cope with the amount of footage on show – one film at a time, each in their own compartment. It’s a necessary and charming device and shows Yung’s compulsion to make things and cover every surface. There are paper cut-outs, fabric, painted bits of wood, semblances of arches and my personal favourite – a pair of bright, stripy saloon doors. It’s all a bit bonkers, but in a good and disorienting way.
The main film of the exhibition is ‘Amnesia; A Rehearsal’, a film partly shot in the Jane Austen Museum and made during a residency in Sherborne. Here the artist becomes Sarah Winchester and features alongside Austen and other characters. There is a scene where we see the silhouette of the artist, lit up and twirling around – in a HUGE frock (love a bit of dressing up, me) – the wooden panels of a room. There is more twirling later in the film too, which seems to sum up the artists’ glee; in meeting people, in finding stories on her travels and ultimately, in making her work. It’s a bit infectious and I felt like twirling too. In the film we see cut scenes, mistakes, practising and performed lines. I’d be a liar if I said I knew what was going on exactly; there were times when I felt like I was on the outside of an in-joke or specific experience. However, I don’t care about that; I am happy that not everything has to be explained. What I take from the exhibition is that it is human nature to make links, however random, between things, and to try and make sense of things in relation to our own experiences. This exhibition feels like the end of a certain period for Yung and I am looking forward to seeing where she heads next. A really meaty, exciting, confusing, amusing and thought-provoking show.
