This work traces the quiet tension between longing and fear—the desire to be close, and the instinct to pull away.
Within a rigid metal frame stretches a delicate sheet of silicone, soft as skin, imprinted with lace patterns that evoke memory, family, and forgotten tenderness.
The silicone feels like an overgrowth of skin—formed to protect, yet also to isolate—both shield and barrier.
On either side, metal flowers lean in, drawn toward the skin yet never meeting each other—forever caught in the space between.
It speaks to the silent distances we carry, and the unseen weight of wanting to touch, but holding back.
"Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow."
Jingtian Yang is a Chinese interdisciplinary artist currently based in London, with an academic background in animation and printmaking. His practice, grounded in the conceptual framework of relational art, examines the intricate dynamics between individuals and society. His work explores themes such as the complexity of interpersonal relationships, the contradictions within intimacy, the tension between the private and the public, and the fluidity of self-identity. He points out the paradoxes of a projected identity in the process of defining relationships.
Working across media—including sculpture, painting, printmaking, 3D modeling, and experimental video—Yang employs philosophical inquiry as a tool to reflect on the dynamic balance between the individual and the collective. He often integrates traditional printmaking techniques—particularly etching, screen printing, and lithography—with other forms and materials to create immersive visual experiences that challenge perception and evoke emotional resonance. Lithography, with its sensitivity to surface and pressure, remains central to his exploration of texture and gesture.
Materiality plays a crucial role in Yang’s practice. By juxtaposing hard, sharp materials such as metal and glass with fragile, mutable elements like skin, the human body, and silicone, he evokes a tension that mirrors the fragility of emotional connections and the instability of meaning. Through this material contrast, his works create a direct dialogue between material and viewer, eliciting deep emotional responses and challenging assumptions about visual and physical stability. Yang’s works often begin with the body as an entry point. He wants his body to be present in the work, rather than be an image of his body in the work. He wants the viewers to experience the self-meditative process inside the landscape of his corporeal body.
For Yang, artistic mediums are not merely tools or outcomes; they are conceptual frameworks and modes of thinking. He approaches printmaking as a fluid, ever-evolving visual mechanism to investigate distorted and unstable emotional ties. This approach underpins his broader practice, which continually challenges the boundaries of the image within contemporary art. Through sculptural language, he reconfigures spatial concepts of the image, while exper
