Boyuan Wang was born in Zunyi, China in 1998. He graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts with a BA in printmaking in 2020. His works have been exhibited at China Printmaking Museum in Guangdong, Yachang Artistic Centre in Beijing, Southwark Gallery in London and Air gallery in Manchester. Now he lives and studies in London.
Boyuan Wang
Humour and incongruity play a big part in my practice. Through engaging with them, I reflect on my thoughts, break the social constraints, and formulate new questions.
According to the superiority theory of humour, feelings of superiority bring about laughter. This enables me to mock some social phenomenons and to rethink the legitimacy of human behaviours. such as the absurdity of anthropocentrism, we take ourselves too seriously but sometimes forget we’re only standing on our own perspective.
According to the relief theory of humour, laughter appears when you feel relief from tensions, I adapt this in my drawing, these creatures in my drawing are farting, picking nose and exposing their sexual parts. These fantasies help me release tension from our social constraints, the sexual repression and underlying social etiquettes.
According to the incongruity theory of humour, humour appears when things violate our normal expectations. This makes me question the rationality of normality. Such as the normality of gender, beauty standards etc. I challenge the standard usage of different mediums, the apple plushie is not only cute but also erotic, in addition, it’s androgynous rather than single-gender.
By putting irregularities in regular situations and combining them with some harmless jokes. I’m questioning the world through my practice, finding new excitement and meaning.
Testing Ground
Details
Details
This drawing is a combination of different creatures, these creature comes from my interest in gender, humour, biology etc. Some of them are erotic, such as a meatball with many arseholes, a slug with 10 penises on its head and a fish with three breasts. Some of them are hermaphroditic, such as a foot with a penis high heel, a scrotum with a vagina in the middle and a busty torso with two penis legs. Some of them are somewhat mutations of existing creatures, such as asymmetrical plankton and a worm with two tumours…
I found many interesting references from different times in history from different cultures. The Chinese classical text Shan Hai Jing from ancient times depicts lots of mythical creatures, such as the phoenix with 9 heads. Similarly, these fantasies can be found in ancient European paintings too, such as The Garden of Earthly Delight by Hieronymus Bosch, where a bird with a human body is swallowing a human who is farting crows, and a flower with human limbs holds fresh cherries while dancing. People drew imaginary creatures to express their thoughts, their eagerness and their fear.
I draw them to deal with my pressing problems. They’re documentation of my memories, my feelings of pain and happiness, my dreams and my struggles…
Medium:
Digital PrintSize:
100 X 70 cm
Childhood Dreams
Save our planet!? –
Due to climate change, the polar bear population is decreasing but the jellyfish population is increasing.
Silly Fetishist –
Their nostrils point to the sky and prefer mating with others who have bigger toes.
Bobbie fish –
A sexy fish in deep sea
Penicorn –
A mixed-race cutie.
Fruit of Eden –
Evadam.