Dead Reckoning is a selection of new collages, sculptures, and photographs by Yeni Mao.
Yeni Mao's recent body of work uses a diverse artistic lexicon of nautical, animal, botanic, and martial arts film references to explore the cyclical regeneration of history. The artist is particularly inter... Read more
Dead Reckoning is a selection of new collages, sculptures, and photographs by Yeni Mao.
Yeni Mao’s recent body of work uses a diverse artistic lexicon of nautical, animal, botanic, and martial arts film references to explore the cyclical regeneration of history. The artist is particularly interested in the distortion of inherited cultural narratives, in his words: “the magical and superstitious way we navigate our own reinvention as we move around loosely through space, via immigration and extradition; and time, via history and tradition”. Mao’s first solo exhibition at Collette Blanchard Gallery addresses these moments of transformation and deliverance.
The central installation, Dead Reckoning, for which the exhibition is titled, is a sculptural homage to explorer Zheng He. This installation, a large construction of multiple toy boats hung from the ceiling to create an artificial horizon line, captures the dichotomies in Zheng He’s legacy as hyper-masculine eunuch, and the flip of historical global power bases. Slippage between historical fact and the generation of myth becomes fertile territory for Mao. The use of the term Dead Reckoning to describe the formulation of cultural evolution outlines the conceptual core of the exhibition.
