Lot 484 - Yan Wang Preston - With Love From an Invader 43-183, 09 June 2020

Photographic print on paper
2020
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso with COA
Curated by Gemma Padley

About
Yan Wang Preston is a Chinese-British visual artist interested in landscape representation, identity, migration, and the environment. With photography as her primary medium, her solo, collaborative, and participatory projects employ still and moving image, sound, performance, installation, and the artist book to explore complex ideas from multiple angles.

Education
2010-2018
PhD in Photography, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK
2006-2009
MA in Visual Arts, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK
1994-1999
Clinical Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Solo Exhibitions
2024
Yan Wang Preston: Three Easier Pieces, Messums London, UK

2023
Field Studies-Land Body Botany, Bath House Galleries, University of Huddersfield, UK

2022
Yan Wang Preston: With Love, Messums London, UK
Yan Wang Preston: With Love. From an Invader, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK

2019
Forest, LOOK Biennial, Liverpool, UK
Forest, Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
Forest, Cortona on the Move Photography Festival, Italy
He, LOOK Photo Biennial, Liverpool, UK

2018
Forest, Gibson’s Mill, Hebden Bridge, UK
Forest, Xposure Photography Festival, Sharjah City, UAE
She Dreams, LiverpoolONE, Liverpool, UK
Forest, The Atlantic Project, Plymouth, UK

2017
Forest, GETXOPHOTO, Getxo, Spain
Now and Before, LiverpoolONE, Liverpool, UK
Mother River, Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
Mother River, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK

2015
Mother River, China Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing, China
Mother River, Wuhan Art Museum, China
Mother River, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China
Mother River, Swatch Pavilion, the 56th Venice Biennale, Italy
Mother River, Lianzhou Fotofestival, Lianzhou, China

2014
He-River Together, Touchstones Rochdale, UK

Group Exhibitions
2024
Nature on Notice: Contemporary Art and Ecology, LACMA, USA
Human/Nature, Fotografiska, New York, USA
In Bloom, Fotografiska, Tallinn, Estonia
Mutantx: × BIENNALE DE L’IMAGE POSSIBLE, Liege, Belgium
UK Women: British Photography Between Social Criticism and Identity, Ludwiggalerie Schloss Oberhausen, Germany
Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
Photo-Art-Photo: From Julia Margaret Cameron to Thomas Ruff, Clemens Sels Museum Neuss, Germany
Presence: The Figure in British Postwar and Contemporary Sculpture, Messums West, UK

2023
Energy: Sparks from the Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Civilization, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
In Bloom, Fotografiska, Stockholm, Sweden
Paper Geographies, FORMAT, Derby, UK
Here and Now, Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery, Manchester Museum, UK

2022
The Time is Right, Jeddah Photo 2022, Jeddah, UAE
Contested Landscapes, Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, Mannheim, Germany
Archive at Play, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
Rhododendrons: Riddle Obsession Threat, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK
Ground, Long Gallery, Messums Wiltshire, UK
Zoopolis, Kunstraum, Innsbruck, Austria

2021
Soft City 2.0, MoCA Chongqing, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China
Facing Britain - British Documentary Photography since the 1960s, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany
Cohabitation, Silent Green, Berlin, Germany
Public Life, FotoFest, Houston, USA
The Art of Trees, Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, OH, USA

2020
Ten by Ten, FotoFest Biennial 2020, Houston, Texas, USA
Climate Emergency in 50 Rounds, Fotobokfestival Oslo, Norway
Paper Geographies, Manchester Central Library, Manchester, UK

2019
Pier to Pier, LOOK Biennial, Liverpool, UK and Shanghai, China
Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Canada
Sony World Photography Awards, Somerset House, London, UK and other venues
209 Women, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK

2018
Ten Directions: the 10th Anniversary Exhibition of Three Shadows Photography Awards, Beijing & Xiamen, China
40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography, OCAT, Shenzhen, China

2017
Parallel 2017, C-Art Centre, Chongqing, China
Syngenta Photography Award, Somerset House, London, UK
Mother River, Kaunas Photo 2017, Lithuania

2016
Dubai Photo Exhibition, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Immeasurable: Three Shadows Photography Annual Award, Beijing and Xiamen, China
Pondyphoto 2016, Pondicherry, India

Awards
2023
RPS Award in Environmental Responsibility, The Royal Photographic Society, UK

2019
First Prize, Professional Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards

2018
Hundred Heroines, The Royal Photographic Society, UK

2017
First Prize, Professional Commission, Syngenta Photography Award

2016
Shiseido Photographer Prize, Three Shadows Photography Award, China

Gallery Representation
Messums.Org (UK)

Public Collections
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, USA)
National Trust (UK)
Wuhan Art Museum (Wuhan, China)
Manchester Museum (Manchester, UK)
Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool, UK)

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork
Wang Preston’s practice is characterised by rigorous research processes led by her committed embodiment within the land to gain first-hand, skin-to-skin-like understanding. Her submitted artwork With Love. From an Invader. 43-183, 09 June 2020 is from such a project. In order to investigate the political and ecological complexities behind the term ‘non-native invasive species’, Wang Preston walked to and photographed one love-heart-shaped Rhododendron ponticum bush every other day for an entire year, 17 March 2020 to 16 March 2021. The photograph for Art on a Postcard was produced from the 43rd visit to the bush. As the title suggests, a postcard is the perfect form for the photograph which was intended to be a love letter. Throughout the year-long embodied research, she also discovered a thriving ecology as the home to more than 20 animal species and more than 45 bird species while the rhododendrons functioned as the keystone species. Such discovery challenges the prevalent view such as Rhododendron ponticum are ‘naturally’ invasive because they are non-native to the UK. Meanwhile, it supports the idea of a recombinant ecology in which species from different origins form a functional habitat with no naturalised hierarchies between the native and the non-native. Such recombinant ecology is much akin to the British society which is multicultural yet permeated with hierarchies and segregations. Supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the University of Huddersfield, With Love. From an Invader. is to be released by The Eriskay Connection as a major publication in 2025.