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Mr Monkey sees Nina Yuen at the CAC


Venue : Chinese Arts Centre
Start date: 22 March 2013
End date : 11 May 2013
Visit date : 19th April 2013
Mr Monkey looking at one of Nina Yuen's Heather Who cutouts
Mr Monkey trotted along to the Chinese Arts Centre to see the first solo exhibition in the UK by Nina Yuen.

Mr Monkey watching Don by Nina Yuen
Hawaiian born artist Nina Yuen creates videos using fictionalised personal memories and conflicting accounts of the past. The results are intriguing, mildly confusing and often dream-like.

This exhibition comprises three excellent videos playing on a continuous loop.

Alison (2008, 7m 12s) is centred on the disappearance and death of one of Yuen's childhood friends. It incorporates parts of a Raymond Carver poem, Virginia Woolf's suicide note, and the missing person report filed by the friend's mother. Mr Monkey found it the most ambiguous and the most interesting of the three videos.

In Heather Who (2011, 4m 00s) a group of students from a private prep school have only one voice between them as they portray the single girl Heather Who in an exploration of how people are remembered by their names.

Don (2008, 8m 1s) is about Yuen's mother's break-up with her husband. Yuen plays several roles in the film, and achieved a particularly odd effect by taping parts of the script (transcribed from a recording of her mother talking) to the studio ceiling.

In the dark at the back of the gallery are a series of portraits, essentially paper cut-outs, linked to the Heather Who video.

Mr Monkey really enjoyed this exhibition of interesting videos, all of which are just the right length.

This exhibition runs until May 11th 2013.

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