Today we’d like to introduce you to Yuehao Jiang.
Yuehao, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hi, my name is Yuehao Jiang (pronounce as ju-ɛ haʊ, or “You-eh How”). I am an interdisciplinary artist born in Suzhou, China, and currently based in Los Angeles. Suzhou is a beautiful city with over 2500 years of history; some call it the Venice of China because of the canals, stone bridges, and traditional Chinese gardens. My parents are both visual artists and university professors specializing in design, and I don’t think I’ve ever dreamed of any other job except for being an artist. Drawing has always been the way I imagine and express myself.
At age 19, I came to the United States to pursue my education in art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When it came to choosing a major, I decided to focus on new media art and animation. I studied with artists Claudia Hart, Eduardo Kac, and Jon Cates, who had a big influence on the way I think of art, new media, and technology. I really enjoyed living in Chicago, but it was a little cold. So, I applied for graduate school in Los Angeles at UCLA’s Design | Media Arts Program, where I worked closely with artist Jennifer Steinkamp and writer Erkki Huhtamo. Since 2015, I have lived and worked in Los Angeles. After graduating, I’ve worked as a freelance artist and designer. I have also held teaching appointments at UCLA Design Media Arts and Parsons School of Design. As an artist, I feel really lucky to have a community and support network here in Los Angeles.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When I read a question like this, it reminds me of the challenges of cultural differences. Growing up in China, I was encouraged to self-regulate my emotions and focus more on positive things than talk about personal issues and struggles publicly. In Los Angeles, it is accepted to want to be the center of attention, and sometimes, when a friend is “oversharing,” I feel a little awkward. In China, harmony is emphasized when socializing in a group. It’s not to say one is better than the other. The emphasis on maintaining a sense of peace can, ironically, be very stifling – especially if you are a woman. Finding a balance between modesty and openness is delicate; this can also be in the context of promoting myself or celebrating my accomplishments. I am always learning more about how to navigate these aspects of American society.
I would never have believed when I moved to the U.S. in 2011, that studying abroad would lead me to a graduate program at UCLA, meeting my partner, and eventually getting an O-1 Visa. That said, it has always been a struggle to be an outsider in American culture. It may be even more pronounced in Los Angeles, where social networking is made more challenging by the scale of the city. These are challenges I know many immigrants have faced before me, and I’m very fortunate that I have a community of brilliant friends and collaborators here. These challenges are intertwined with my artistic and personal development, and I am grateful for how they have shaped me and my work.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I create surreal digital landscapes and bodies that play with materiality and immateriality. Primarily working with 3D software, I design immersive installations combining video projection, animation, sculpture, and painting. 3D software attracts me because it is not constrained by physicality. I can create, manipulate, and duplicate objects of infinite scale while playing with gravity and lighting. I bring materiality and texture to digital media through projecting video and animation onto physical objects. When moving images are projected into a physical space, it is dramatic and emotional. Here, I’ll talk about two bodies of work that I feel best exemplify my practice.
My project Shanzhai Remix (2017-present) is an ongoing body of work exploring the concept of shanzhai (山寨), or counterfeit designer products, as a contemporary Chinese aesthetic. The word shanzhai may imply a negative meaning at the surface level, but these products fulfill the local market’s need with their affordable price and distinctive design. I’m particularly interested in the mix-and-match feature of shanzhai: for instance, a shanzhai Gucci bag with a slightly altered Louis Vuitton logo printed all over. This can be seen as a design solution to get around the copyright law, but in a deeper sense, it is a resistant and rebellious sign against the globalized market. It materializes a revolutionary democratic system that draws its inspiration from the local needs and feeds its output back to the source.
For this project, I first scoured markets in China for colorful and engaging examples of shanzhai objects. I brought them back to my studio in Los Angeles and 3D scanned them, turning them into digital assets. These assets were then used in sculptures, animations, and projections in a mixed-media installation. I have exhibited this work in Los Angeles, Oakland, Beijing, and Suzhou in site-specific formats.
My recent work is focused on the relationship between humans and nature in the form of bodies and landscape paintings. In 2020, I moved to Twenty-Nine Palms in California. It was my first time leaving the city, and the immersive experience with nature left me both excited and inspired. The vast evening sunsets, the starry night skies, the diverse desert vegetation, and the granite boulders formed a billion years ago were all deeply memorable. I began thinking of how I could capture this landscape by translating ideas from traditional Chinese landscape painting into digital art and animation.
The first body of work to emerge from this was a project entitled Rock Scribble. Between 2021-2022, I used frottage and colorful wax pastel as a playful method of capturing the textures of rocks in Joshua Tree. I had been curious about making work that could engage with social media, so I created short videos documenting myself creating the abstract drawings. You can watch these videos on TikTok @rockscribble.
The second body of work is entitled “Unreachable Destination”, and it consists of wax pastel drawings of surreal chimeras that combine natural forms with body parts such as hands, arms and faces. This work is influenced by the Taoist idea that humans should live in balance with the universe. The spirit of the body joins the universe after death. These works have also been an opportunity for me to explore painting as a new treatment of surfaces with three-dimensional forms.
My recent animation piece, They Are in Me, and I Am in Them, reimagines the Mojave Desert landscape as a colorful digital landscape constituted by wax pastel drawings. This artwork is about my experience being immersed in nature and seeking connection with the mountains and the landscape. The title “They are in me, and I am in them.” is a quote from Friar Bitter-Melon on Painting by Chinese painter Shi h-t’ao (1641-before 1720). He proposed that the substance of hills and streams embodies the inner law of the universe and that a good painter has to meet and comprehend the hills and streams in spirit.
I am hoping to continue developing these themes in my upcoming work, including an indie game, and will be sharing updates and upcoming shows through my social media account @yuehao_jiang.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
My favorite and least favorite aspect of Los Angeles is the same thing: driving! When I first moved to LA, I was really fascinated by the experience of driving across the city on the freeway late at night. I think my favorite freeway is the 210 from Pasadena going east. You get to see the mountains on one side and the city on the other. At night, the mountainside is completely dark, and the city is lit up. It feels like floating in outer space among glowing stars. My least favorite part about the city is the traffic. Cliche, I know – I guess nobody really enjoys the traffic! I’m lucky to mostly be able to set my own schedule, which lets me work around the traffic but makes my days feel different than the normal workday. I think that’s something that feels unique about Los Angeles. I also love how accessible the desert and mountains are via the freeway system. It’s really important for my creativity to get out of the city once a while. I like going on road trips and being in nature. A lot of my recent works are inspired by landscapes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://yuehaojiang.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yuehao_jiang/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@rockscribble
Image Credits
Sally Sum
Matthew XJ
Doyle Yuehao Jiang
