Taipei Travel

The immense fear of the apocalypse looms like an enemy’s jet circling up above, unpredictably shifting near and far, and the widespread virus, like an invisible killer, leaves people at a loss for what to do. Having been through the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War, our planet is further shrouded by extreme weather conditions that overshadow people’s spirits and minds with apocalyptic thoughts like an overwhelming dark cloud. The world knows no mercy, and art is useless. The faint cries coming from the artist sound even more frail and helpless in the face of ecological extinction, leopard cat road-kills, the disappearance of clouded leopards, forest fires, racial massacres, energy depletion, or how things are in the post-colonial contemporary world. It seems like he is only able to ask ever so gently before the dark and endless path of doom emerges: “How on earth can we obtain salvation?”

Facing today’s world, Yang began with a realm full of fierce mythical figures and characters engaged in historical battles, and he then embarked on a heroic path with the Innocent and the Wanderer, such as saints, immortals, robots, and also Alice and the Astro Boy. Then with brisk and enthusiastic steps, he gradually leaped away from the cumbersome shackles of history and even tried to detach from humankind’s blood-stained past, which then took him on nighttime excursions to explore splendid fighting fish and bizarre deep-sea creatures, before entering a magical eternally spring tropical forest, with blossoming lilies, clouded leopards, Formosan black bears, crows, insects, and fish tattooed on wooden blocks. The artist then embarked on the ultimate return journey of redemption for all sentient beings and the call of the wild. From the trinity of painting, iconography, and sculpture to the coming together of the trio of brushstrokes, wood, and metal, and from his early path of hope for the Innocent and the Orphan who fell or were forgotten by the heavenly kingdom, and the scenes of the rise and fall of power with the Martyr and the Warrior who saved the world and fought against violence, Yang’s creative journey traveled to Glittering Soul , where the fighting fish’s tenacious will was experienced and then to Wanderers of the Abyssal Darkness to be accompanied by a school of deep-sea fish and surrounded in an ambiance of profundity, solitude, autonomy, and alertness. He then freely transitioned to an emerald jungle of The Lasting Spring , where primal instincts were liberated and all beings became one; it was where the mind was joyful, light, and calm. With all gods congregated, the dusk is yet to be over. This exhibition intends to delve deeper into what kind of contemporary divinity Yang is trying to achieve with “Rescues in Time.” Is it the art world’s Warrior or Martyr? Or is it the Innocent with no worldly goals, the Wanderer who follows and drifts along, or the Orphan who was left behind in the deep sea? Perhaps, it’s the mystical beast that’s immersed holistically in nature and protected by the gods, or those characters that came to the rescue represent the journey of the hero within the artist, as he faces himself and goes through personal adjustments.