The Moon Also Rises

2022 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

20:00 minutes

Yuyan Wang


The Moon Also Rises by Yuyan Wang comprises a one-channel video and light installation. The work is based on a 2018 initiative in China to launch three artificial moons into orbit above major cities to provide continuous daylight. Set in an oppressively illuminated environment, the images depict lethargic crowds in megacities, surrounded by glowing neon lights, and workers in LED factories performing repetitive tasks on an assembly line in a kind of trance state. Wang depicts the imposition of relentless light as a form of capitalist authoritarianism and neocolonial control that demands ceaseless productivity, while ignoring the ecological and human damage inflicted by the renunciation of darkness. Édouard Glissant’s call for “le droit à l’opacité” (the right to opacity), a form of postcolonial resistance, inspired this project. The Moon Also Rises portrays a nocturnal community based on overpowered efficiency—a community active, available, and connected, where the mysterious zones are replaced by a homogeneous brightness. Under the authority of everlasting lights, the film depicts the capitalist myth—the immateriality of new technologies and tries to trace the “light” back to its terrestrial origins.


Yuyan Wang is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist whose work examines images at the point of production and the atmosphere cultivated by media regimes within the attention economy. Both poetic and political, her productions underscore the diversity of the effectual matrix that exists between suspense and action. Her practice of image recycling is a kind of détournement that forms the basis of complex, immersive environments, inverting and subverting the functions and meanings of the images used. Employing montage, sound, and acceleration, she alternately creates focus from distraction, and ambiguity from clarity.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

The Dream-Like Paintings of Christian Vincent
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Christian Vincent’s paintings carry whimsy and melancholy, the artist playing with light and perspective in scenes from the everyday...

An-My Lê: the artist portraying the inhuman scale of war and small acts of resistance
© » THEARTNEWSPER

An-My Lê: the artist portraying the inhuman scale of war and small acts of resistance Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Artist interview interview An-My Lê: the artist portraying the inhuman scale of war and small acts of resistance Airlifted out of Vietnam as a teenager when Saigon fell, the Vietnamese American photographer makes no attempt to simplify the unbearably complex, and pits individual agency against huge geopolitical forces Dale Berning Sawa 7 December 2023 Share Installation view of Fourteen Views (2023), which represents a river journey from the Mekong to the Mississippi via Parisian water gardens, encompassing Vietnam, its colonisation by France and the military intervention by the US Photo: Jonathan Dorado, © MoMA In 2021, An-My Lê had an out-of-body experience in the Californian desert...

OM Rider
© » KADIST

Takeshi Murata

2013

Takeshi Murata developed an interest in space inspired by his architect parents...

Prophecies for the Second Machine Age
© » KADIST

Prophecies for the Second Machine Age An Online Video Exhibition curated by Erika Balsom...

Weekly Picks: Malaysia (15–21 October 2018)
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Picks: Malaysia (15–21 October 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do October 15, 2018 No Black Tie Ivory Series presents ‘To The Moon’ , at No Black Tie, 15–16 Oct, 8pm Part of No Black Tie’s 20th anniversary celebrations, To The Moon draws inspiration from the likes of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Louis Couperin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Henry Purcell, and Gluck...

The Small Cinematic Paintings of Zhiyong Jing
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Zhiyong Jing says he paints "dreams, bodies and absurd realities." The Beijing-based artist takes a surprising approach to scale in his work, often rendering distant figures on small canvases...

Jet Folder & Data Tree
© » KADIST

Lin Ke

2013

Jet Folder & Data Tree (2013) offers a humorous take on how computer and screen-based technologies affect our relationship to the natural world...

Matteo Nasini “bassa marea” at spazio contemporanea, Brescia
© » MOUSSE MAGAZINE

Matteo Nasini “bassa marea” at spazio contemporanea, Brescia — Mousse Magazine and Publishing...

Mungo Thomson: Wall, Window or Bar Signs
© » KADIST

Wall, Window or Bar Signs , an exhibition of newly commissioned neon signs by Los Angeles-based artist Mungo Thomson...

Lightning01
© » KADIST

Lin Ke

2014

Lightning 01 (2014) parodies our contemporary relationship to screen-based media and the absurdity of aestheticizing boredom...

Gikan Sa Ngitngit Nga Kinailadman (From The Dark Depths)
© » KADIST

Kiri Dalena

2017

Gikan Sa Ngitngit Nga Kinailadman (From The Dark Depths) by Kiri Dalena is a stylistically collaged film inspired by the true story of a young activist’s drowning...

Jeamin Cha, (Home)sickness
© » KADIST

Each week, we focus on one video work by Jeamin Cha, which is available to stream for one week from May 27, 2020...

The Planets, Chapter 32
© » KADIST

Jackie Karuti

2017

The Planets, Chapter 32 (2017) is a short video that depicts the world at a time of great anxiety...

Hyangro Yoon’s Paintings Are a Bold Take on Our Data-Obsessed Era
© » ARTSY

Hyangro Yoon’s Paintings Are a Bold Take on Our Data-Obsessed Era | Artsy Skip to Main Content Advertisement Art Hyangro Yoon’s Paintings Are a Bold Take on Our Data-Obsessed Era Daehyung Lee Jan 30, 2024 10:55PM Hyangro Yoon, Tagging-H , 2022...

What Sold at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023
© » ARTSY

What Sold at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 | Artsy Skip to Main Content Advertisement Art Market What Sold at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 Maxwell Rabb Dec 11, 2023 7:45PM Interior view of Art Basel Miami Beach, 2023...

A Soon-to-Open Private Museum in China’s Shunde District Could Offer a New Model for Arts Spaces in the Country - via ARTnews
© » LARRY'S LIST

Collector He Jianfeng’s He Art Museum, which opens in March, is unlike other institutions in its region....

Cityscapes, Landscapes, and Figure Paintings by Mitchell Johnson on View in Menlo Park
© » HYPERALLERGIC

Cityscapes, Landscapes, and Figure Paintings by Mitchell Johnson on View in Menlo Park Skip to content Mitchell Johnson, “Brooklyn Bridge (Martha)” (2023), oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches Flea Street restaurant in Menlo Park, California, presents an exhibition of paintings by Bay Area artist Mitchell Johnson ...

Why This Couple’s Art Collection Consists of Paintings by Pioneering Singapore Artists - via Singapore Tatler
© » LARRY'S LIST

Husband and wife duo Su-Yen Wong and Fermin Diez have spent the past 13 years curating their collection....

Ground Control — (and the stars look very different today)
© » SLASH PARIS

Ground Control — (and the stars look very different today) — Topographie de l’art — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Ground Control — (and the stars look very different today) — Topographie de l’art — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Ground Control — (and the stars look very different today) Exhibition Mixed media © Topographie de l’art Ground Control (and the stars look very different today) Ends in about 1 month: November 24, 2023 → January 11, 2024 Demain n’est pas qu’une simple projection d’aujourd’hui ; l’avenir se définit tout aussi bien comme le reflet de notre imaginaire à la surface de miroirs que l’on a plus ou moins éloignés dans le temps...