Trevor Yeung: Soft ground

28 Sep-17 Dec 2023

Overview

Gasworks presents Soft ground, the first UK solo exhibition by Hong Kong-based artist Trevor Yeung. Yeung’s work uses botanic ecology, horticulture, photography, and installation as metaphors to understand social relations.

His carefully staged installations subtly address systems of control and power structures. He often uses plants as cyphers, borrowing from their structure, care, and maintenance to think about intimate and personal experiences. Intermingling plant, animal, spectator and participant, Yeung’s work prompts us to consider how emotional and behavioural conditions in our everyday life are determined.

Yeung’s exhibition at Gasworks delves into the complex social dynamics and interspecies relationships in London’s gay cruising areas. Central to the exhibition is a scale recreation of Hampstead Heath’s infamous “fuck tree”, a notorious ageing oak whose sturdy trunk is bent low and whose bark is polished smooth following its regular nocturnal use. Cast in soap, Yeung’s version fills the dimly lit gallery with an earthy, moist scent – evoking a liminal space of desire, longing, and shame.

Employing light and scent as key elements in his sculptural work, Yeung transforms the gallery to explore the fluid interplay between night and day, public and private life, hiding from others and being seen.  

Yeung's exhibition is commissioned and produced by Gasworks, London in partnership with Para Site, Hong Kong;  Aranya Art Center, Qinhuangdao and with the generous support of the Henry Moore Foundation and Blindspot Gallery.

Gasworks commissions are supported by Catherine Petitgas and Gasworks Exhibitions Supporters.

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Biography

Trevor Yeung is an artist based in Hong Kong. His work has been included in major international events including the Singapore Biennale; 4th Kathmandu Triennale (both 2022); KölnSkulpture 10, Cologne (2020), 15th Biennale de Lyon (2019), 38th EVA International, Limerick; 4th Dhaka Art Summit (both 2018), and the 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014). In 2024 he will represent Hong Kong in the 60th Venice Biennial.

He has exhibited at institutions and galleries internationally including Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; Singapore Art Museum; Jameel Arts Center, Dubai (all 2022), M+, Hong Kong; Shanghai Power Station of Art, Shanghai; Para Site, Hong Kong; HOW Art Museum, Shanghai (all 2020), CAC Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius; Kunsthall Trondheim (both 2019), Taikang Space, Beijing; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2018), esea contemporary, Manchester (2017) and OCAT Shenzen (2016). In 2022 he was in-residence at Delfina Foundation, London.