Wang Yuyang: Artificial Moon, On-site Project

Location: Xujiahui park

“Looking at the artificial moon, we are watching the lights illuminating themselves.” – Wang Yuyang

The second large-scale installation for Xujiahui is created by the Beijing based artist Wang Yuyang. Suspended in-between trees in the only “natural habitat” in the Xujiahui area–the Xuhui park, this particular abstraction of the rarely seen moon in the Shanghai skies induces a kind of “artificial” natural experience for its audience.

The installation was created ad hoc a few years ago on an industrial complex that has since then completely disappeared; the work will create a shifting presence of the artificial light of the Xujiahui commercial center into the park, playing with the contradiction of artificial and natural, of real and surreal for the ultimate esthetic pleasure of the public.

“Artificial Moon has departed from clichéd Chinese symbolism[…] Here the form of the moon has been re-contextualized, and is placed within touching distance where all possible metaphors are blended into pulsing light,” writes curator Li Zhenhua of the work.

This site specific work was created as part of the Shanghai eArts Festival 2008. The festival had a special focus on the livability of urban space, public sphere and its transformation through new media. In conjunction with the eArts Festival Arthub presented Final Cut-Processing New Media in Public Space, a five-day programme of live performances, site-specific installations and video screenings in Xuhui District, a flourishing and bustling area of Shanghai.