YUGE ZHOU'S Love Letters
Originally debuting at Art on the Mart, Chicago-based artist Yuge Zhou’s series Love Letters captivated public audiences with a nightly public art projection onto the facade of Chicago’s Merchandise Mart.
Now, two new episodes from the Love Letters series —“Summer” and “Winter”— are exhibited as one of the two video artists featured in the exhibition LOVE: Still Not The Lesser at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Zhou’s combination of observational vantage points, collage, and choreography charge her explorations into national and personal identity, place, connection, and longing.
Love Letters portrays a courtship dance between two people in a labyrinth metropolis. They overcome obstacles and physical barriers in order to communicate their affection. It is inspired by the collective experiences of isolation and separation felt by many during the global pandemic.
Interview by Isabel Hou
Love Letters explores national and personal identity, place, connection, and longing themes. Could you delve deeper into how your work explores these themes and their significance for you as an artist?
The series Love Letters was conceived during the pandemic, during which I became increasingly aware of people’s isolation from each other. Most people were secluded in their own space. Also, I couldn’t visit my family in China, so I felt this breakdown between me and my family. This longing made me want to explore that personal aspect of myself as an individual and artist in the US. So, I wanted to create a piece about the journey of two people meeting each other and moving from isolation to connection.
Your series captivated audiences with nightly public art projections on the facade of the Merchandise Mart. How does the transition from outdoor public art to a gallery exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography impact the viewer's experience, and what do you hope to convey in this new context?
It’s super challenging and exciting to show work on the iconic, larger-than-life architectural canvas of the Merchandise Mart. I conceived a special version of Love Letters with graphic effects and a fast-paced choreography to activate the facade for that venue. The music was also composed to reflect an urban environment with the ebb and flow of the city rhythm.
The summer and winter episodes of Love Letters at The Museum of Contemporary Photography are more meditative, with the relationship between the two dancers slowly evolving, which works very well with the black box setting of the museum where the viewers can immerse themselves into the dancers’ intimate world. Some museum visitors told me that they watched the two videos a couple of times in one sitting.
Yuge Zhou, Love Letters, Art on the MART, courtesy Michael Salisbury
Could you share how the pandemic influenced your creative process and the storytelling in your series?
Two of my most personal projects were conceived during the pandemic: Love Letters and Moon Drawings.
In the latter project, I filmed myself dragging a suitcase in concentric circles in the snow and on a beach in Chicago.
It was inspired by a Han Dynasty legend about missing loved ones in a faraway land. The circles were symbolic of the full moon, representing family reunion in Chinese culture. Making these pieces is my way of processing the isolation we were all feeling, specifically the heartache and the distance I felt from my loved ones.
The press release mentions the traditional Chinese concept of “Yuan 缘,” which signifies a fateful intersection leading to a relationship with an uncertain future. How does this concept play a role in your work, and what cultural or personal significance does it hold for you?
Throughout the years, I’ve realized that this notion of Yuan has often appeared in my work - the chance encounter - the beauty and ephemerality of that connection. Since I’ve moved around so much, relationships were formed and drifted away. However big or small these imprints were, I could always find poetry because the universe creates beautiful intersections between stories and lives.
Your series features two distinct episodes: “Summer” and “Winter,” each with its own unique setting and atmosphere. Could you describe the artistic and thematic choices behind these two episodes and how they complement each other within the broader narrative of Love Letters?
The Love Letters series portrays a courtship dance between two people in a labyrinth metropolis. They improvise a style of wordless language that no person outside of their relationship could understand. It is inspired by the collective experiences of isolation and separation felt by many during the global pandemic.
The summer episode features two dancers standing on the east and west banks of the Chicago River, sending messages to one another from afar using gestures against the industrial backdrop of the city’s South Side neighborhood.
In the winter episode, we watch from above a playful chase between the dancers on a multi-axis pier during a snowstorm. The two episodes can be seen as sequential or cyclical.
Can you reflect on the impact of cultural and geographical transitions on your art? How has your experience living in China and the United States influenced your artistic voice and the stories you choose to tell through your work?
My bicultural background will always play a role in my work. My friends once told me that they think I am too Chinese to be American and too American to be Chinese, which I have to agree with. Both countries are my home, and I will always exist as an outsider and an insider in these two cultures.
You can see it from the way I position myself in my work. After all these years, I feel like the in-between, this gray area, is what is most interesting for me. Now I’m at a place where I’m happy with that. I’m willing to explore this in-between state rather than trying to be one or the other.
Your journey as an artist is quite unique, transitioning from being a popular children's TV series singer in China to pursuing a career in video art and installations in the United States. Can you share the pivotal moments or experiences that led you to make this transition and what it means for your identity as an artist?
I was lucky in the sense that I discovered the joy and energy in creative expression when I was a child. Back then, it was singing, now it’s visual art. While I performed a lot throughout my childhood, I subsequently studied technology because my family felt it was a more pragmatic direction. Instead of pulling me away from art, it eventually became an unusual gateway to propel me into a more contemporary realm of art making. When I came to the United States, I picked up a camera and started shooting. It wasn’t calculated, almost happenstance. This led me to pursue an MFA at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, where I could fuse artistic concepts with the logic associated with technological innovation.
Could you share some of the specific locations and landscapes within Chicago that inspired the backdrop for your Love Letters series and how these settings enhance the narrative and atmosphere of your work?
Because I shoot on locations, I always consider the landscapes and architecture as a stage or supporting characters in my work. In Chicago, there’s Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. I am near water, and I have a view of the lake, so I spend a lot of time looking and thinking about the relationship between humans’ natural and architectural environments.
In the summer episode of Love Letters, the dancers are separated by the water, but at the same time, the water is also a conduit for their connection. The winter episode was filmed in a snowstorm at the North Pond casting pier. The reason for that location is the cross-shaped structure, which reminded me of an intersection of city streets, and you can see the dancers gliding across the frozen expanses, which was enhanced by the use of aerial perspective.
Love Letters engages with the concept of affection and connection in an increasingly digitized world. How do you see your work fitting into the broader conversation about the intersection of art and technology and its role in bridging emotional gaps in contemporary society?
Technology alone can be very isolating, but by merging it with the creative medium of art, you can reach people’s emotions in a way that has not been done before. It’s an interesting journey for me to experiment with technology and art in order to express what it means to be human.
Can you speak about your future artistic endeavors and projects? What direction do you see your art taking, and are there any specific themes or messages you'd like to explore in upcoming work?
I’m currently working on an experimental 16mm film that captures a very old Ginkgo tree in Chicago as a metaphor for rootedness and displacement of being Chinese in America.
LOVE: Still Not the Lesser will be displayed through December 22, 2023, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.
Video credits:
Love Letters (Art on the MART)
Director: Yuge Zhou - Choreographer: Hannah Santistevan - Sound: Ori Zur - Movement artists: Xavier Núñez; Rebecca Huang
Love Letters (summer & winter)
Director: Yuge Zhou - Choreographer: Hannah Santistevan - Movement artists: Sam Crouch; Rebecca Huang
Isabel Hou is a rising senior at Cornell University interested in art, writing, and law. She plans to live and work in Manhattan post-grad. When she’s not in New York, she’s based out of Colorado, where she enjoys the mountains, the art, and the solitude.
