Through the Mirror of Translation: Aishan Yu’s Recent Work 穿过翻译的镜子：余艾珊近作
Essay on Aishan Yu's solo show 1=0.999999999999999… at Lychee One Gallery, London, 8th July – 3rd August 2017 A small stream of water is coming out from a tap, and yet, a comb with static electricity bends its trajectory of flow. The image in Aishan’s 1=0.999999999999999... (1) is almost a photogram—from transparent to milky-white, the gradient tones of the running water, the tap, the comb, and the hand are seemingly the result of this simple science experiment being recorded directly without a camera onto a piece of light-sensitive paper. However, traces of pencil dust dirtying the white paper on its edge elicits the truth, that it is a drawing of a black-and-white photograph inside a vintage children’s book. This is where Aishan’s translation starts. The translation is intermedial, crossing the boundary between photography and drawing and yet proceeds back to the photographic effect of negative imaging. 1 The slow process that this highly detailed drawing demands bears the ...