Arts Thread

Yaya Wang
Animation MA

Royal College of Art

Graduates: 2023

Specialisms: Animation / Film & Animation / Film

My location: London, United Kingdom

yaya-wang ArtsThread Profile
Royal College of Art

Yaya Wang

yaya-wang ArtsThread Profile

First Name: Yaya

Last Name: Wang

University / College: Royal College of Art

Course / Program: Animation MA

Graduates: 2023

Specialisms: Animation / Film & Animation / Film

My Location: London, United Kingdom

Website: Click To See Website

About

Yaya Wang (Xi-lin 王西林) is a non-binary & genderfluid animator, dancer and multidisciplinary artist. Yaya is French born Chinese, and currently based in London. Yaya loves to work with water-based paints, clay, liquids and found objects that hold a special memory quality to them. Yaya's work melds those mediums into the 2D animation that is often improvisation-based, and the result of straight-ahead animating, that is inspired by the practice of contemporary dance and movement work.Text works and poetry, as well a translating between French, Mandarin, and English, is also a big part of their practice. Translating taps in for Yaya as a way to expand their understanding on notions like growth, care and gathering, can they be relearned to be spoken within our communities — not just in Mandarin, French or English, but also between mediums.

Into the next tide

A castaway, Tofu, is found ashore by a group of musicians. Together, the band welcomes their newcomer. Meanwhile, at the other side of sea, something is calling upon Tofu in reminiscence of a past storm. ____ Into the next tide is a fragmented reconstitution of thoughts and Yaya's experiences of grief, gathering everything from the loss of loved ones, end of friendships, and exploring the parts of themselves still to be found within the realm of gender questioning. Yaya dedicate this film to the queer, East and South-East Asian communities in London and beyond, that have offered them a new, caring home. This film is an offering, gathering of past selves and a deep desire to be present. Into the next tide invites to a world where there's no need for binary opposition when all our sorrow and joy can exist at the same time. Into the next tide is a set-free, and an ode to enjoying the process of making, while keeping it playful, open, and improvisational, as an act of honoring the love we have for drawing, and let ourselves into the unfurling, fertile surprise that freedom brings, weaving into the space of unknown.