past exhibition
Nowhere Near
a one-week showcase by summer 2023 artist-in-residence Lilan Yang
Nowhere Near is the first-ever solo show by Lilan Yang, a Boston-based artist. Yang is the gallery summer 2023 artist in residence and was selected as part of a competitive jury process. On view in Nowhere Near is a curated selection of photographs and experimental film installations—some of which were made during Yang’s six-week residency this summer and some of which were made this past year—that delve into the essence of memory and its dissolution.
Nowhere Near features Yang’s pseudo-film installations, which defy traditional filmmaking norms by employing a unique non-chemical method to create 16mm and 35mm films. This pioneering approach melds analog and digital realms, utilizing inkjet/laser printing and laser cutting techniques. This exhibition chronicles Yang’s introspective solo journeys through the Pacific Northwest, the Atlantic Coastline, and a poignant voyage to the American West. It stands as both a visual narrative and a meditation on perception by contemplating ways of seeing and not seeing. Moreover, the exhibition delves into an experimental juxtaposition between film and memory, exploring how films’ natural and mechanical degradations as an archival medium mirror the gradual erosion of memories over time.
To mark the exhibition’s closing on Saturday, August 26, an exclusive film screening in the original 16mm format is also slated. This event is a rare opportunity to view many of Yang’s unedited, shot-on-camera short films in the evocative Kodak Black & White Reversal. Yang’s MFA thesis film, Everything Comes Full Circle, will also be featured with a new score by London-based composer Julian Tran. After a two-year sojourn, this exhibition heralds Yang’s much-anticipated return to Boston and unveils her new works to the public for the first time.
preview
About the Artist
Lilan Yang (b. Chongqing, China) is a Boston-based artist and experimental filmmaker. Her practice explores the myth of cities and landscapes, ways of seeing and unseeing, and sentiments of remembering and forgetting, through lens-based analog media, such as 16mm filmmaking and 35mm photography, as well as digital technologies, such as machine learning and data visualization.
She holds an MFA in Digital + Media from Rhode Island School of Design and a BS in Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a member of AgX, a Boston-based film collective, and part-time faculty at Parsons School of Design in New York, NY. Exhibitions include: Atlas, Foxy Production, New York, NY; 61st Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI; Noise Spectrum, PROCESS Experimental Film Festival, Riga, Latvia (all in 2023); Making Moves, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA; Transitory Void, Digital + Media Biennial, Boston CyberArts Gallery, Boston, MA; Of Soiled Body, RISD Museum, Providence, RI; and MONO NO AWARE XVI, Brooklyn, NY (all 2022). Screenings include: 37th IMAGE FORUM FESTIVAL, Tokyo, Japan; Beijing International Short Film Festival, Beijing, China (both in 2023); and Mekas 100, Ultra Cinema Festival, Mexico City, Mexico (2022). Yang has been an artist-in-residence at I-Park Foundation and has received grants from Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Interbay Cinema Society, and Interlace Grant Fund.
Thank you to Jiaoyang Li for providing much of this written text.
Press
Five Questions with Filmmaker Lilan Yang by Delia Harrington for Boston Art Review
In Lilan Yang’s ‘Nowhere Near’ at Gallery 263, vacation snapshots melt like your memories by Claire Ogden for Cambridge Day