Glide Along The Border by YDMD

中文版 - Chinese version      

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YDMD

My first meeting with representatives from the YDMD team was on a rainy day. One of them carried a long-handled black umbrella, which was later left at The Closer Gallery. Looking at its curved handle, I was thinking that maybe only people who liked to use “old-fashioned” umbrellas could create those works like “umbrella cups”. Over a year later, the long-handled umbrella was finally returned to its owner at our regular meeting before the coming exhibition a few days ago.

Communications with the YDMD team can hardly become “serious”, whether in person or via mobile phone. Once we were “connected”, a switch in the brain seemed to be quickly turned on, and we would immediately enter a relaxed and casual state. The process of communication is like an amusement to each other, but the matters we need to discuss “seriously” can always find their answers unconsciously. Sometimes people do need such a relaxed and casual state, just like boys can easily do some naive things when gathering together. Whenever I get along with YDMD, I would have the impulse to “play” temerariously. It seems to be a kind of “inciting power” unique to this creative team.

YDMD created some “seemingly-alike jewelry” works for this exhibition. The first time I saw the complete series was in a sleepy late night. I opened the mailbox with a little hesitation, because I needed to make a little psychological preparation to allow my tired mind to accept some “stimulation”. As soon as I saw the first picture “Slide Carefully”, my sleepiness went away immediately. Although “grafting and transplanting” is YDMD’s usual tactic, such a “grafting” technique really makes people feel annoying but funny.
 
“Seemingly-alike jewelry” is the most appropriate word I can think of to describe this series of work. The so-called “border” shouldn’t be a wall or some kind of barriers that act as an isolation. Just imagining, the ground around the “border” may be extremely smooth, so smooth that there is almost no resistance, and you can hardly stand firm when walking on it. But brave people always want to explore, to find a way to slide back and forth on that ambiguous road, at the risk of slipping down at any time.
 
Only that their works really don’t need to be detailed in words; if all the hidden mysteries are preconceived and interpreted in words, it will become boring. Therefore, I cannot bear to elaborate on each of the works in detail, and of course I did neither to present all the wonderful works here. I would rather leave this precious “first acquaintance” to the audience who will visit the exhibition gallery.
/ Liang Xiao, The Closer Gallery


Exhibition Overview by YDMD:
We often mention about “pushing the border of jewelry”. Does this mean anything can be made into jewelry under the pretext of “pushing the border”? Or does it mean this kind of “pushing” must follow an “appropriate” principle, so that all the “unexpected” are still “reasonable”.
 
Aristotle argues that the “objective cause” is the ultimate cause of all things. Thus, we believe that there is no purposeless creation. Even unplanned fun of play is often aimed at satisfying curiosity, so every decision in creation must point to an established schema hidden in our hearts — If I want to make a ring, it must be able to hang on my finger; if I want to make a necklace, it must be able to hang on my neck.
 
Our head is like a box with holes of various shapes on the surface. Only when some object can be stuffed into the box through those holes, we will admit that this object can be called “something fitting the shape of the hole”. This abstract shape can be regarded as a psychological schema, which means that not all shapes of objects should be stuffed into the same hole.
 
However, according to the experiment conducted by Swiss psychologist Piaget, an old schema can be influenced by a new experience, so as to be assimilated and transformed into a new schema. Therefore, the schema itself is always changing. This transition “from new to old” can be understood as something slightly different in shape being “forcefully” stuffed into a hole of a specific shape, and over time, the shape of the hole will also change. This seems to point to the extension of border. So how do we define “slightly different”? What degree of change can we consider to be “enough” relative to the current moment?
 
Our coming exhibition adopts a strategy of “scratching the edge” in the creation process. All the inspirations came from the “peripheral relevance” of jewelry to ensure that the “slightly different” is met. We hope to use subversive perceptual images to constantly test back and forth on the edge of perceptual concepts. The works to be exhibited start from three “peripheral” directions: the relevant field of the jewelry, the relevant image of the jewelry, and the relevant text of the jewelry. Then, provocative imagination is used to deconstruct the illustrations. Meanwhile, we are also experimenting how social, cultural, philosophical and other relevant information can properly penetrate into each work in this kind of practical process with the purpose of “renewing the illustration”. This means that the “update of the illustration” is also an update of our perception.

Adeline Virginia Woolf said in “The Mark on the Wall” that “How readily our thoughts swarm upon a new object, lifting it a little way, as ants carry a blade of straw so feverishly, and then leave it. . .” But here, we regard straw as a treasure and appreciate it for giving us a fanatical experience.