Kill Alice- Final Battle: Yang Mao-Lin Solo Exhibition

KILL ALICE – FINAL BATTLE  will include thirty-two recent works (2009 to 2011), from the series KILL ALICE, GREAT BUDDHIST PARADISE II, and PROMINENT LEADERS. Yang is well-known for drawing from animation and manga to depict playful characters and Buddhist imagery. The works in KILL ALICE – FINAL BATTLE denote Yang’s interest in history, collective memory, and issues that extend beyond the artist’s life.

 

The sculptures and prints on metallic paper based on Lewis Carroll’s novel ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (1865) show Yang’s continued interest in fantasies.  He credits the success of Carroll’s story to its fantastical nature, by noting: “If we could just turn ourselves into powerful giants we could pick up bad guys and shove them against the walls with our fingertips; or wishing we could shrink ourselves down super small so we could head off to work with our fathers in their breast pockets…”

 

Rendered in media such as bronze, gold foil, and stainless steel, the Trusty Steed, the Queen of Hearts, and the White Rabbit join the towering sculptures of the GREAT BUDDHIST PARADISE II, and the caricatures of PROMINENT LEADERS. The figures turn the gallery space into a fantasy world, and demonstrate how despite the tragedies inherent to many of the stories on which the artist bases his works, in the end, Yang Mao-Lin is always hoping for a joyful ending.