Art exhibition questions autism in society

The solo exhibition by artist Yang Yexin "We are all autistic patients" is on show at M50 through May 15.

Curated by Bu Da, the exhibition features Yang's 12 art pieces varying from performance art, installation, video to oil paintings from 2010 to 2024.

"In the trend of globalization, social and psychological fluctuations with the rapid development of social media have made our real life increasingly characterized by isolated autism," Bu said.

"Through this exhibition, Yang questions the traditional framework of autism and reveals the universality of this phenomenon in contemporary society."

China has more than 10 million patients. The most significant feature is communication obstacles with others, manifested in language, social and behavior.

However, Yang gives the concept of autism to the broader realm of social interaction, projecting a much larger group of affected people.

His art works reflect the inner world of individuals under the state of autism. The artist started to focus on the topic of autism 15 years ago, as he thought "autism has become a kind of social common disease with a tendency to affect everyone."

For example, his video work "The loneliness of autism" records the performance art conducted by Yang on February 28, 2010.

Yang invited an autistic person to sit in the center of the square of Redtown in Shanghai. Dressed in black tight clothes, the performer was continuously entangled by thousands of black woolen threads until he was finally trapped in "a sea of threads."

The whole scene forms a black "vortex of despair," which fully demonstrated the inner world of the autistic person tormented by loneliness and isolation.

Another impressive piece is "No Talking Today Series II," also a video work that records Yang's performance art created in 2014.

During the Shanghai Biennale that year, the artist invited more than 100 young artists to sit in silence on thousands of art magazines, aiming to criticize that contemporary art had increasingly detached from society and become an "autistic art" for the few.

If you go:

Date: Through May 15 (closed on Mondays), 10am–6pm
Address: Rm 4A101, 50 Moganshan Rd