Group show, Lie Between, ShanghART Gallery, Beijing, China, 20 May 2025 — 29 June 2025
- yaoqingmeistudio
- May 19
- 2 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
我们之间横亘着
Lie Between
Tuesday 20.05.2025 — Sunday 29.06.2025
11:00 — 18:00 Monday closed
Address: 香格纳画廊（北京), 朝阳区机场辅路草场地261号
ShanghART Gallery, 261 Caochangdi, Airport Side Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Yao Qingmei
Room5(1)Wrap
2022——2023
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
16'30"
Courtesy of the artist ©ADAGP, Paris, 2025
A dense white sheet twists and rises from the bed, taking on a vertical shape. Beneath it, dancer Saadia remains hidden under a pale, flesh-toned turban. She sequentially conceals herself behind a translucent white veil and then a black curtain, moving through a sequence of wraps and reveals. Eventually, she steps out from behind the black curtain, displaying her body and hair, and starts the distinctive, vigorous shakes of traditional Arab belly dancing. These powerful tremors ripple through every muscle, causing her silky nightgown to quiver. Slowly, she loosens her headwrap, unveiling her face and letting her long hair flow. This is the Khaleegy, a celebratory dance of Middle Eastern women, revealing brief glimpses of her face as we hear her breathing. It is the process of a body slowly shedding its covers, transitioning from the hidden form of an object to that of a human being. The filming evolves too, shifting from a distant, stationary shot to a close-up that captures the dancer’s emotional state.
Yao Qingmei
Night
2022——2023
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
8'30"
Courtesy of the artist ©ADAGP, Paris, 2025
The professional burlesque dancer moves rhythmically to the cadence of the artist’s sound poem. This poem melodically emphasizes various body parts: eyes, neck, shoulders, breasts, hips. The dancer’s choreography highlights the contours of the female form, evolving into more provocative gestures until she sheds her long-nailed gloves and heavy makeup. The actress’s intense, challenging gaze questions the dynamic of watching and being watched. The performance’s first half concludes with the line, «Words pierce my skin.» In the ensuing darkness, Chopin’s Nocturne plays, and the stark light from a phone screen casts an eerie glow on parts of the dancer’s body, now bare of makeup and stage attire, wearing casual workout clothes. She collapses, lying flat on the floor, with her eyes and arms seemingly ensnared by the smartphone’s light.
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