Yubing Tan is a diligent artist who makes few art works. Through her life, she always feels confused about the rules and disciplines of the society and questions the boundaries between sanity and insanity. Yubing thinks the whole society is a big mental hospital.
Under the impact of surrealism and skepticism, my work explores the power dynamic between genders, identities, classes as well as the authority and the individual. I apply humor and absurdity in my works to narrate fairy tales for the adults. My autobiographical approach enables me to give life to the unliving, give meaning to the unvalued and give uncanniness to the domestic.
I mainly work in the field of fiber and craft. Fibers and textiles such as silk, wool, fur, cotton are my stories. Through the processing of cutting, dying, stitching, quilting and sewing, I transform the power of the soft to resistance. I intend to evoke reflection and empathy of the viewers, believing in both the tactile sense of materiality and the visual sense of symbol.
I also work within the media of time-based works. Through videos, animations and performance, I explore the irony of the confrontation of different power groups. Practicing the theme of black humor, my work talks about the unbalanced status of dissimilation and assimilation – a human cannibalism of the colonizer and the colonized, the governor and the governed.