David Yu
Toronto, CANADA - David is an interdisciplinary artist who’s work includes sculpture and installation, audio, video, and live performance. His work pushes boundaries, reflects on process, and pushes viewers in the way that they experience and interact with the work. You can check out his newest work below, and also visit his website, Twitter, and Insta!
He has a MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art in London, UK, and a Bachelors in Fine Art from the Ontario College of Art and Design. Featured works include: a city-wide art installation commissioned and curated by the Duncan and Jordanstone College of Art and Design, funded by the Scottish Arts Council (2010); a Triangle Arts Trust residency and solo exhibition at the Kuona Trust Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya (2010); participation with Flux Night 2012, Atlanta,Georgia, with a multi-channel video installation; MART Gallery Dublin, Ireland (2015); LocustProjects, Miami, Florida (2018); YYZ Artist Outlet, Toronto, Canada (2018); Orleans Gallery, Ottawa, Canada (2018). Currently, David is working on performance-based research which investigates the role of the viewer as “performer” within installation practices, which has been generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
x-in-waiting
FROM THE ARTIST:
Throughout the COVID-19 quarantine I have been creating an on-going performance-for-camera series “x-in-waiting,” which I am currently developing into a mobile app. The work asks viewers to wait for eight minutes with the performance artists in various videos. Each video shows the performance artist engaging in a form of performative mediation/occupation of their own choosing. These performances involve everyday household items and situations found within the home under quarantine scenarios. Each scenario embodies something commonplace; however they are orchestrated/curated into a “serious” art performance moment, rendering them to be quite humorous (e.g.: the artist balancing on a plethora of inverted empty wine bottles). The sites used are familiar to the audience as they are a reflection of the spaces that we have all been sequestered into in order to ride out the pandemic. The common thread connecting each eight-minute performance is the visual aspect of the artist being on their phone while passing time while creating a “waiting” performance (this mimics what the viewer is doing when they watch the performance on their phone).
“x-in-waiting” refers to the period of stasis that occurs for something (the variable ‘x’) to become something else. For this work the “x” stands in for whatever occupation the artist is consumed with while being ‘in waiting’.
This work is currently being turned into a mobile app as artwork in 2021 mimicking a "meditation app". It will ask viewers to take some time out of their day to pause and wait/perform/watch with the artist. Push notifications will alert users when a new performance/meditation is uploaded. This app as artwork will ‘finish’ when the quarantine restrictions are over: the app alerts users that the waiting has now ended and the app will ‘self-destruct’.