DSL Magazine: Issue 11

80 Yang Fang Really not 真的不行 (2019) Originally displayed via seven projectors as part of a performance supported by the Tank Shanghai Center, Really not 真的不行 (2019) depicts a series of miscellaneous objects and female bodies that flash, float, and spin against a black abyss. Fang Yang’s CG aesthetics are influenced by images used by Taobao sellers to promote their products, and his approach to the female body addresses the sexualization of feminine beauty and constructed masculinity. The “downloadable women” that Fang Yang created for this work are pieced together from the features of popular types of Asian femininity that the artist has collected online and redressed to his liking. They are shaped by his fascination for these idealized representations. As exaggerated muscular limbs and fleshy bodies float and spin around other unidentified objects in a seemingly random fashion over a distorted and jittery soundtrack of dial tones, Fang conjures a feeling of ritual dread that speaks to the entanglement of consumerism and representation online.