The two works Reflection on the Future and Longing for the Past were presented at the Chengdu Biennale, they are further extension of the artist’s Shell series at the level of material language. This body of work approaches material as a readable linguistic system, placing the physical properties of objects in dialogue with the symbolic meanings they carry.
In contemporary society, the boundaries between people become ever more defined and fortified. The artist transfers portrait images onto the surface of seashells through the emulsion lift, embedding the image within a specific material substrate rather than allowing it to function solely as a medium of representation. Here, the shell operates simultaneously as the physical support of the image and as a metaphorical “spiritual оболous” — a protective yet fragile enclosure that signifies shelter, intimacy, vulnerability, and preciousness, while also alluding to the psychological and existential barriers that separate individuals.
I try to nderstanding of the self by understanding the shells: how might we, between the surface of material things and their inner resonance, reconsider the relational structures and modes of existence through which we inhabit the world?
Yin Yunya in the Group Exhibition:The Rambles of a Wandering Adaptist——Ping An Art Exhibition & ShanghART Thirty-Year Group Exhibition Ping An Financial Center 116th floor, Shenzhen.Date: 12.02, 2025 - 03.29, 2026
Yin Yunya in the Group Exhibition:The Rambles of a Wandering Adaptist——Ping An Art Exhibition & ShanghART Thirty-Year Group Exhibition Ping An Financial Center 116th floor, Shenzhen.Date: 12.02, 2025 - 03.29, 2026
The concept of shelter, in its broad and pluralistic sense, serves as a creative motif that captivates artists, and the seashell inherently embodies such a natural form of refuge. This exhibition invites the audience to step on and crumble the shells, thereby experiencing the fragility of protective structures and the assertion of self-agency in the act of destruction. Through tangible interaction, visitors will engage with the tactile sensation of fragmentation, the auditory resonance of breakage, and ultimately contemplate the vulnerability of protective shells—that is, the delicate nature of sanctuary itself.