'Yuan - A Hand-Drawn, Red Circle' was created as a result of a site-specific performance by Yan Wang Preston. On the 19th November 2011, at 5, 340 meters above the sea level on the Tibetan Plateau, Preston made a red circle on the frozen headwater of the Yangtze River, in front of Gangjiaquba Glacier on the eastern face of Mt. Geladadong (6,621m). The glacier is one of the sources for China's Mother River, the Yangtze. Preston used a special rock pigment, Indian Red Earth, that is typically applied for Tibetan religious paintings. She used her bare hands to smear the pigment onto the ice, as a way to connect with the mighty river. The circle is a shape of harmony, as understood in Taoism tradition. Preston created the work out of her concerns towards China's rapid changes and their environmental as well as cultural implications. But personally, it was also her way to pay tribute to her Mother River and Motherland.

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Artist Profile

Born: 1976

Hometown: Beijing, China

Lives and Works: West Yorkshire, UK

Dr. Yan Wang Preston is a British-Chinese artist interested in the contested conditions of nature in contemporary societies. Her major projects include: ‘Mother River’ (2010-2014), for which she photographed the entire 6,211-km Yangtze River in China at precise 100-km intervals on a large-format film camera; ‘Forest' (2010-2017), for which she investigated the politics of reforestation and ecology recovery in new Chinese cities.

Preston’s work has won major international awards such as the 1st Prize in Professional Landscape category, Sony World Photography Awards (2019); Hundred Heroines, the Royal Photographic Society (2018); the 1st Prize, Syngenta Photography Award (2017); and Shiseido Photographer Prize at the Three Shadows Photography Annual Award in Beijing, China (2016).

Solo exhibitions of Preston’s work has been presented at venues such as the 56th Venice Biennale, Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum, Wuhan Art Museum, Gallery of Photography Ireland, Impressions Gallery in Bradford, UK, and Xposure International Photography Festival in Sharjah, UAE. Important group shows include Dubai Photo, Syngenta Photography Award exhibition at the Somerset House, London and Pier to Pier in Liverpool and Shanghai.

Preston’s monographs ‘Forest’ and ‘Mother River’ were both published by Hatje Cantz in 2018. Her work is collected by institutions such as Wuhan Art Museum in China, Syngenta, Swatch, as well as private collectors worldwide.

Preston was originally trained in Clinical Medicine in China. She was awarded a PhD in Photography from the University of Plymouth in 2018. Besides of her artistic practice, she also lectures at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

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