Breakfast with the Arts

Join the Studio Art Department for Breakfast with the Arts with SART Photography Fellow Tian Yang. At 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Apr. 9, 2019, Nearburg Gallery, Black Family Visual Arts Center

Join the Studio Art Department for Breakfast with the Arts with SART Photography Fellow Tian Yang.

8:30—10 a.m.
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Nearburg Gallery, Black Family Visual Arts Center

Having spent his life on different continents, Tian Yang is fascinated by and frequently questions the process of defining cultural identity in our increasingly globalized world.

 

The photographic series “Encountering Czechia” was born out of Yang’s two years of living in the Czech Republic. As a foreigner trying to acquire local cultural competence, Yang set out to acquaint himself with various cultural elements constituting the Czech identity—such as food, folk costume, architecture, customs and tradition. Yet what Yang found out is that commercial/information exchange and the impact of migration continuously blur the cultural boundary between Czechia and other nation-states. While Yang mixes different genres of photography to form his visual language, his project pays equal attention to the traditionally Czech cultural elements as well as the previously foreign elements that have been embraced by the modern Czech reality. 

 

All photographs were captured with a view camera on 8”x10” color transparency film. As a foreign student studying in an English program in Prague, Yang used his large format camera to overcome the language barrier and expand his contact with the local people. To them, Yang was more a performing artist with a cumbersome prop than a professional photographer. To present these film originals, Yang built a light box for each of them. His process is through and through analog. Whereas the digital era provides us with infinite choices in image capture and postproduction, only one sheet of film at a time affords Yang such a simplicity that he enjoys so much in his process.

 

Yang completed his secondary education at Haihe High School in Tianjin, China. He received a BA in Visual Arts from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France (2009), a BFA in Photography/Filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2013), and an MFA in Photography from FAMU of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the Czech Republic (2018). Yang then became the Postgraduate Fellow in Photography here at Dartmouth College. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions or film screenings in China, the Czech Republic, France, Ireland and the United States.

 

www.daydayyang.com

Pastries and coffee from Lou's Bakery will be served!

 

This event is sponsored by the Leslie Center for the Humanities.