MELBOURNE.- The Australian Centre for the Moving Image opened Yang Fudong: Filmscapes, Australasia’s first survey exhibition of China’s pre-eminent moving image artist, Yang Fudong.

In his last exhibition opening before retiring as ACMI Director & CEO on Friday 5 December, Tony Sweeney, said; “We are immensely proud to be presenting the alluring video installations of Yang Fudong; one of the world’s most extraordinary moving image artists. We are pleased to partner with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki on the co-commissioning of a brand new five-channel work called The Coloured Sky: New Women II (2014), which evidences Yang Fudong’s gentle observations and impactful filmscapes,” said Sweeney.

“Yang Fudong: Filmscapes represents our focused commitment to international collaboration at a time when Australia-China relations are at the forefront of current affairs,” he said. “Profound socio-economic change in China through enterprise and urbanisation, has dramatically transformed Chinese contemporary life and Yang Fudong’s lyrical and dreamlike works examine this transition through a lens that’s both powerful and accessible to audiences worldwide,” added Sweeney.

Internationally renowned for creating expansive and allusive 35mm film and digital video installations, Yang Fudong’s works feature long and suspended sequences, spiralling narratives and multiple perspectives that reflect the psychology of a new generation grappling to find its place in modern day China. ACMI’s unique exhibition design and cavernous subterranean gallery draws focus on the sweeping cinematic qualities of Yang Fudong’s works, creating an immersive experience for audiences.

In attendance for the opening, Yang Fudong reflected on the new work, saying; "ACMI's commission is the largest I've undertaken in Australia and I'm grateful for the opportunity. I have made a lot of black-and-white films, but this time I chose digital video to make a coloured work. This was a very important experiment in understanding the ways that colour video can improve or change the narration. This project has given me the courage to explore new ideas and support other breakthroughs.”

Commenting on the world premiere of The Coloured Sky: New Women II (2014), the exhibition’s curator, Ulanda Blair, said; “In this five-channel video installation, Yang Fudong delves into the secret dreams and anxieties of contemporary young women. Forgoing his signature 35mm black-and-white film for crisp, high-definition video, this colour-drenched work suggests a vivid intimacy with its subjects. As three ingénues frolic self-consciously behind Technicolour-tinted glass, the politics of spectatorship and the construction of female sexuality are obvious.”

The Coloured Sky: New Women II (2014) conveys a poetic reflexiveness that permeates all of Yang Fudong’s works. In Yejiang / The Nightman Cometh (2011), a wounded soldier questions his path in life as three ghost-like figures represent his inner suffering, romanticism and regret. Spanning seven screens, The Fifth Night (2010) features a disjunctive narrative mirroring new-world China in which seven pensive youths are captured on separate cameras, wandering through a 1930s Shanghai plaza. In the circular, six-channel installation of East of Que Village (2007), wild dogsdepict the marred line between civilisation and savagery.

Yang Fudong’s works draw heavily on traditional Chinese painting and also reflect a fascination with international cinema, particularly film noir. His key influences include filmmakers Jim Jarmusch and Jean-Luc Godard, as well as Shanghai films of the 1920s and 1930s, which were strongly influenced by the West.

To celebrate Yang Fudong: Filmscapes, ACMI will present a special one-off screening of the artist’s acclaimed film cycle, Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (2003 – 2007) on 14 December 2014. This free event marks the first-ever presentation of all five films in a cinema.

Mr Sweeney also noted the exhibition launches China Up Close, a rich program of exhibitions, talks, live events and film exploring Chinese culture and society, from December 2014.

“China Up Close marks the most significant focus on a major trading and cultural partner ever undertaken by ACMI. We will explore the key movements, influencers and themes in Chinese moving image art through a range of programs, at the core of which is Yang Fudong: Filmscapes,” he said.

Born in Beijing and based in Shanghai, Yang Fudong majored in oil painting at the China Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou. He embarked on filmmaking after graduating from art school, moving to Shanghai where he still lives today. Yang Fudong’s first film An Estranged Paradise (1997 – 2002), which debuted at Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany, in 2002, marked the beginning of a longstanding interest in the inner lives of young urban intellectuals. This work, like his celebrated five-part film cycle, Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (2003 – 2007) expresses the aspirations and anxieties of his generation, born during or just after the Cultural Revolution. Unmoored from traditional culture as well as the guiding principles of Communist orthodoxy, this generation is struggling to define itself under the new socialist market economy.

Yang Fudong is represented by ShanghART Gallery (Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore) and Marian Goodman Gallery (New York, Paris, London).