M50 holds solo exhibition by Yang Yexin inspired by shoe soles

"The Traces I Left in the World," a solo exhibition by artist Yang Yexin, is on show at M50 through October 10.

"Many artists have painted face, feet, bodies, or even shoes, but almost no one painted the soles," Yang said. "We won't even look at the soles, as they are dirty and insignificant. But for me, the soles are most worthy of observation and depiction. For example, a detective might find a criminal through the traces of the sole marks on site. They would reveal his physical characteristics that might even decipher the past, present, and future of a person."

In Yang's eyes, soles hide the secrets of a person, which is also the evidence of their existence.

Soles are the inspiration for the exhibition.

The artist tries to push the viewers to ask themselves, "What kind of traces have I left in the World?"

The highlight of the exhibition is "No.3." This summer, China was ravaged by floods. Yang immediately went to the Dongting Lake to collect objects left behind after the disaster.

"No.3" takes a huge pink shoe sole as its visual center, and makes a collage of children's shoes, old toothbrushes, bottle caps, medicine bottles, and other found items. The work tries to reflect the helplessness of human beings in the face of natural disasters, while at the same time evoke sympathy and concern from viewers for the affected people.

The artist also explores anxiety within marriages, conflict between men and women, and emotional bullying through his works of No.5, No.6, and No.7.

Yang cuts half of a man's sole and a woman's sole, then reassembles them together to form a new odd-fitting and bizarre sole. Perhaps this new sole will impel the viewers to examine the inescapable traces of their inner being in their marriage or relationship.

Exhibition info:

Date: Through October 10 (closed on Mondays), 10am–6pm

Venue: M50

Address: 4A-101, 50 Moganshan Rd.