Collage 2014

Yan Cong

Using Western collage techniques, quilting, and Chinese paper-cutting, Cong constructs images of daily life (the artist at work, the sun above a tree, the reflection of a face in a mirror). Elements of composition like color and shape retain their individuality in these images: as Zhou Yi notes in his prefatory text “what is is, and what isn’t isn’t.” This restraint results in scenes in which abstract forms speak and simply-rendered characters take on unexpected depths of emotion.