I was riding the metro one day and happened to glance at the man sitting next to me. His phone was out and, without meaning to, I saw his password. It reminded me of how casual we are with our own privacy and security. I have been a victim of hacking more than once. But I still choose to “forget” and continue using social media and messaging apps because the convenience and pleasure they provide outweighs the risks.
The Eye(2018-2019) is a photography-based exploration of surveillance. We live in a culture where we are always being watched, though we pretend to have privacy because it makes us feel safe and we don’t want to give up the comforts of technology.
The Eye(2018-2019) will document two main subjects: The first is a traditional model who has agreed to be photographed. With her consent, I placed five surveillance cameras in my subject’s apartment, but didn’t tell her where or when they would be on. I captured video and pulled screen shots from the footage. The second subject is me. I am documenting my own responses to this process, by turning the camera on myself. The project is a role play. I am playing the surveyor and my subject is playing the surveyed.
The final images will be combined into one large collaged photograph. The center of the image will consist of a large curved eye that is collaged from surveillance shots. Rather than displaying the poster on the wall, it will be hung so that it curves, almost wrapping around the viewer. In this way, audiences will share the experience of being immersed in an environment in which they are simultaneously the watcher and the watched, and reminded of the realities of the systems of power and control that surround us.

The Eye

The Room(2019) is a sealed rectangular space. The size of the whole space is 51*53*70 inches. The foundation is made of 12 of adjusted length 1 by 3 wood pieces. Surrounding walls are made by paper-mashed cardboard. For creating a feeling of privacy, the interior is painting in black acrylic paint. A light is on in this space. Outside of The Room(2019), it is intentionally made low quality of visual in order to create a dangerous feel.
The three photographs displaying on the cardboard wall inside the space are the confliction with the hand-craft wall, similar to the confliction of the sexual assault incident always happen in any space. The images are based on personal stories and stories I heard from people around me and online source. I staged the scene based on different incident locations. These locations in my photographs can be anywhere from a personal room to a church space. The outside space is public where is exposed and overwhelmed, compared to the interior where is safe and personal. One side of the walls has a peep hole set up, which allows only one person at a time to see through to experience the privacy and the photographs within the space.
These collections of photographs and The Room(2019) are working as a complete work. The Room provides a support for this series of photos to better interpret sexual assault.
The intention to start making this work is because sexual assault happens in a high frequency, and people start feeling numb. People don’t care things until things happen on them. Viewing images through a peep hole is to separate the private and public spaces. Viewers can view images in a public space looking inside the private space to feel something, whether is guilty, sad, or empathy, etc. I want my viewers to feel anything is my purpose of doing this work.

The Room

Wind blows, leaves fall(2019-2020) is a black-and-white photo series. The photos were all taken with a Nikon F3 film camera with 50mm lens. The project contains images of my personal lifestyle.
Wind blows, leaves fall(2019-2020) is about how I feel the isolation between me and the rest of the world as well as searching for myself under the loneliness. Meanwhile on taking these self-portraits, I disassociate me with myself, as well as seeing myself both as subject and object. I choose to use light, shadow, and contrast to create an atmosphere of solitude and strangeness. These photos not only convey the lonely lifestyle of me, but also convey a kind of empathy.
Self-developed films are also delivering the idea of how I construct the reality in the private place, and how I search for myself and open myself to the public.
Wind blows, leaves fall(2019-2020) is inspired by how I love watching vlogs on social media. Most importantly, I feel empathy when I’m watching someone else’s vlog, which reflects back on me to think about my own lifestyle both in private and public.

Wind blows, leaves fall

Routine(2019) explores the effects of the surveillance state that we live in and its impacts on human behavior. 
Most people don’t want to give up the comforts of technology, we willingly participate in the technologies that quantify our habits and behavior. Because people know that surveillance camera is normalized. Back in the 20th century, the French philosopher Michel Foucault built on Bentham’s concept and developed his theory of panopticons. The ability of observe, and to have authority to making rules, punishing people, and looking into others private lives, becomes the main exercise of power in society and a means toward the disciplining people. 
Routine(2019) uses an actual measuring tape to frame images of surveillance. I created these images by directing a motion-sensor camera at my neighbor’s window; the reason for this action is to observe human behaviors and human daily routines. (Viewers can absolutely see the daily routine of my neighbors’ movements within the perceived private space of their apartment.) These images are approximately 1.8 centimeters long by 1.8 centimeters wide and organized to show a single day. The images are printed on self-adhesive paper and adhered to the surface of the measuring tape.
 Routine(2019) uses a measuring tape to frame these images because of its traditional role in measuring the world around us.  The use of the measuring tape provides space to measure time. Unlike the behavior that the surveillance camera captures, my tape measure is unpredictable because I measure unexpected subjects. 
Most people ignore the object’s value as a measuring tape. The same thought relates to my bigger theme of surveillance becoming normalized. The relationship between the object itself and its presence in the space exposes the inherent anxiety of the fact that human behaviors are being exposed by the technology.


Routine 

Companion is an ongoing project on sexual assault and harassment. The form of a massive wall made of boxes of various sizes and shapes. I handmade each box use papier-mâché and painted into mixed acrylic colors. Moreover, I have collected experiences through personal interviews and consent. I transformed most striking elements of their stories to the interior of the boxes. 
The scale and the form of the installation, bigger and taller than an average human size, I want to invoke the viewers a sense of holiness and sacredness. Some boxes are empty, as the many stories of sexual assault remain unknown. The support and confliction between each box on display is another point that I want to convey to my viewers. I place the boxes in a way that tightly held together, supporting each other's weights and balancing the whole form. 
 Companion has a wild color palate. I add bright energy to the color palate in order to brighten the shadow of ignorant reality on the social issue. Along with papier-mâché technique layering more innocence to the deepest meaning into the form. 
My intention to make Companion is looking into sexual assault from the point of view of a survivor. Most importantly using the overwhelming form to demand attention to this social issue. 


Add

Yingying Yang