Art Is + Leonard Yang
SP Blog’s series "Art Is +" is an attempt to view art through the eyes of artists and writers themselves. In wide-ranging interviews with vital new artists and writers from both Asia and the USA, the series ushers these voices to the forefront, contextualizing their work with the experiences, processes, and motivations that are unique to each individual artist. "Art Is +" encourages viewers and readers to appreciate art as the multitude of ways in which artists and writers continually engage with our world and the variety of spaces they occupy in it. Read our interviews with Symin Adive, Geraldine Kang, Paula Mendoza, Jessica Witte, Zining Mok, and JinJin Xu.
Leonard Yang is an artist who is currently working from Singapore after abruptly having to move back from New York, where he was previously based, due to the COVID pandemic. In this interview, Yang contemplates the multiple and every-changing forms of “home” that he has both observed and experienced as an artist who moves between the two worlds of Singapore and New York. He also discusses the inspiration behind some of the paintings from his current exhibition, “Bringing Home, Home.” Expressing a deep hope for collective healing, “Bringing Home, Home” was originally shown in-person at Jalan Besar Salon, Singapore, in November 2020, with an accompanying curatorial essay by Yen Phang that can be read at http://www.leonardyang.com/files/hfww.pdf. The exhibition can now be viewed online on Art Yourself Studio’s website.—Jade Onn
Photo caption: Leonard Yang in his studio in New York, NY
“I kind of realize this a lot now: that geographical boundaries
are really temporary. It could just be a geographical place
where you are for a time being.”
Jade Onn: How long has it been since you moved back to Singapore due to the COVID situation?
Leonard Yang: I think it’s been about seven months. I moved back in July of last year so… that gives me about eight months?
JO: And how has that been? How have you been—in terms of living, adapting to the new normal?
LY: I think a lot of it has been adapting, you’re right. I lived in New York for three years—for two years, I was studying for my MFA in fine arts at Parsons, and then I worked for a year. I was practicing as an artist, also working as an artist’s assistant, and also teaching, so to transition back [to Singapore] all of a sudden was a bit like being transplanted to a different place altogether!
I was planning to stay on in New York but had to move back because of the circumstances. And one thing that the pandemic has really affected is people who want to live and work in another place, but can’t do that anymore. So that was the reason why I moved back to Singapore.
I’ve been adapting and am still trying to adapt to being back “home.” Home in the sense that Singapore is where I was born and where I grew up, and was my home for twenty odd years or so. But I’m still adapting to living and working here, and also making art here. One of the reasons why I moved back to Singapore was that I missed my studio. I remember enjoying painting in this studio during my younger days, so to be back here and to paint and to make work during this pandemic is a blessing. So slowly adapting, slowly adjusting, and also being used to being in a different city.
In New York, it was very exciting for me to be able to meet new people and to see new exhibitions every other week! So that’s something that is missing here.
JO: Yeah, I definitely agree with that! I really miss in-person exhibitions too. Earlier, you mentioned that you’re also teaching in Singapore now. Are you doing that in person or online?
LY: We have half of our classes in person and half of our classes online. I teach photography skills to diploma students, so my students are nineteen to twenty-two years old in age and, for a lot of them, this is their first time using a camera.
I went to NTU ADM [Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media] for my undergraduate studies. My major was in photography but that’s also where I picked up painting through electives and working with professors who are pretty skilled painters themselves.
Currently I’m teaching photography skills to diploma level students and one of the classes we’re teaching right now is photographic lighting: how to light a still life using studio strobe lights. That is something that you can’t do online or over Zoom, I have to be there in person to show them and demonstrate how the equipment works, what studio etiquette is like, and how to make sure that you don’t start a fire in the studio and burn yourself. [laughter]
JO: Very necessary skills. So you kind of alluded to this just now when you were talking about working in your studio back in Singapore but how has that been, compared to working on your paintings in New York?
Leonard Yang, Let’s Hold Hands #03, 2020. Oil on canvas, 40 x 56cm. Photo courtesy of Art Yourself Studio, Leonard Yang. © Leonard Yang
LY: For some reason I feel like the pace is a lot slower here. It’s a little bit more of a spacious studio. In New York, I was sharing a studio with like five other people and we had to make the best use of the space available. I couldn’t work on more than one or two paintings at a time, otherwise it would get too crowded. In Singapore, even right now, I’m actually working on four or five paintings at a time. I think it’s a lot more relaxed in the sense that I can work on a painting, and then I can just leave it aside and start on another one because this is a little bit more like my personal space. So with my personal space I can kind of go more with the flow. It’s a lot more chill and a lot more relaxed.
But at the same time, sometimes I get the feeling of “I miss that productivity in New York.” I miss the kind of productivity where I work on just one painting with a lot of focus. So that’s one of the differences.
JO: It’s so interesting to hear you describe Singapore as having more space because I feel like, usually, when people think of Singapore, they think of this tiny little country. But then I suppose it’s the same with New York.
LY: Yeah
“what was unsettling was that I also realized
that I was in a privileged position to be able to move back
to somewhere that was safer than this”
JO: I actually saw on your Instagram that you were transporting art with you back to Singapore as well. What was that whole process like?
LY: It was stressful and I was worried that my paintings would get damaged while transported. I didn’t have the money to purchase insurance and I didn’t want to say “these paintings are worth like ten-thousand dollars” and then have to pay a huge premium for that, so I just got the cheapest crate I could get and, of course I wrapped the paintings up nicely in bubble wrap and glassine.
It was an experience for me, just moving things back. It was also a very humbling experience. It’s a reality that I see myself living in and, the way I see myself as a painter is that if I do have to move studios again in the future, this is what I’m going to be doing all over again. Packing my paintings inside a crate, maybe an even larger one this time because I have so many more paintings [now], and sending them to wherever I’m going to go. So it was stressful, moving not just my paintings, but also my belongings, my art supplies, clothing, everything. I was happy to have them come back home with me and kind of be reunited with them.
I think, now that I’ve done it once, I can do it again.
JO: Yeah, I feel like that’s a conclusion that people are beginning to come to and I love it.
So, let’s talk about this exhibition. In your introduction, you mentioned that this exhibition was partially inspired by your move back to Singapore due to COVID. But I’m interested in that “partially.” Where or when did those ideas/conceptualizations for “Bringing Home, Home” begin for you?
LY: The idea for the exhibition or rather, the exhibition title “Bringing Home, Home” was actually the title of a painting that became the title of the exhibition. I had this idea for the painting a long time ago, while I was in New York. I think it was in March or February that I realized that all of this was going to end and I need to face myself with the realization that I’m going to have to bring all my stuff home. I’m going to have to bring myself home, my paintings, belongings, and so on, and I’m going to have to stay back in Singapore for a while to await things getting better, so that I can travel again. So that [painting] was based on those reflections.
“Bringing Home, Home” is also a bit of an idiosyncratic title because people refer to “home” as if it is a permanent place. Like, if I mentioned “home” to someone, they would think of their apartment or their house, or their place of abode. But it has become very conflated for me, having lived in New York for three years, and I was at the point of thinking about basing myself there for the long term. So, when you mention the word “home”, to me, it’s like: is it this home or that home? Or is it more of like an emotional place rather than a physical place? So that was how the painting came about and how I started thinking about this as a concept, and how I got a conversation going with Yen Phang about the exhibition at Jalan Besar Salon.
JO: You talk about facing the realization that you were going to have to make that move back to Singapore. Was there a specific moment or what triggered that for you?
Leonard Yang, Let’s Hold Hands #04, 2020. Oil on canvas, 40 x 56cm. Photo courtesy of Art Yourself Studio, Leonard Yang. © Leonard Yang
LY: I don’t think there was a specific moment but I think there were several things that were happening. I’m trying to think about it now and… the crisis in New York then was really demoralizing. We were all shut in and places were closed. I lived in Elmhurst and it was one of the neighbourhoods that was hit the hardest, so having to go through a month of lockdown and being not able to leave—or rather, not wanting to leave the house because it was crazy outside. Except for groceries, and I ride a bike, so I cycle a lot and I leave the house once a day for a bike ride around the neighbourhood and to pick up groceries from time to time. So that was really crazy for me, just to see everything being closed, to see all the shops being shuttered, and it was almost like a ghost-town. That made me feel really lonely, and it made me start to rethink things and ask myself: is this where I’m going to be based? And how do I see a place like this a home?
And what was unsettling was that I also realized that I was in a privileged position to be able to move back to somewhere that was safer than this. I think as Singaporeans we’re in a privileged place because we have a government that maintains order and it shows in the number of cases and it shows in the number of deaths, and it is by no mean feat that we are one of the safer countries. So to have this safe haven to go back to is a privilege that I didn’t realize or that I think I had taken for granted. This whole situation of being “home” at two places at once was kind of exacerbated by the whole global situation and it made me realize how unequal things are and how the pandemic just affects people from different social backgrounds in different ways. What if you’re someone who doesn’t have somewhere to return to and you’re stuck in a place and have to live through the pandemic there? It can be really heart-wrenching. So there was this huge magnification of feelings and realizations for me.
And it was also a practical choice, right? Because I had the opportunity to live in a place that was safe. So that was kind of what happened.
JO: Yeah... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot there with that question or to force a moment out of you.
LY: Yeah, there were a lot of things that went through my head during that period of time, during the past one year, so… I sometimes have to pick them up [laughter].
“you can see them as tendrils, or ropes, or chains,
or bringing [the hand] down or letting them break
out from it. The dual meaning is deliberate.”
JO: So, in the title “Bringing Home, Home” the two “homes” is an obvious gesture to your experience, to that New York-Singapore duality of your experience. But I love how, depending on who and where you are as a viewer, whether you’re in New York or Singapore, the direction can be switched and the title itself doesn’t insist on any specific direction. A lot of your paintings reflect that as well. The worlds in your work aren’t located in a specific, distinctly recognizable place. Geography is almost arbitrary.
I would love to know how you would define the idea of “home,” if not by location or a physical place.
LY: It’s interesting- I mean, growing up in Singapore, having the privilege to grow up in a place where you can live comfortably in one place for a large majority of your life with no major conflicts, it makes you feel connected to a place, geographically. It can be the geographical boundaries of your house, your neighbourhood, or your room. But the more I think about it, the more I think that home is where you have an emotional connection to, more so than a geographical connection. And I kind of realize this a lot now: that geographical boundaries are really temporary. It could just be a geographical place where you are for a time being. Where you identify with as “home” is where your emotions lie, or where your emotional connections are.
There’s this old saying that goes “home is where the heart is” and it sounds a little cliché, but I think emotional connections come from the friendships you forge, the relationships you form with people, beyond just your family relationships, beyond where family roots lie. I miss my friends in New York a lot, some of them have moved out, some of them are still there because New York is their permanent home. [But] even though someone calls New York their permanent home, they often don’t own a home. Most people I know in New York are renting, so they do still move from place to place once every year or two, but they still call New York their home. I catch up with them from time to time, so the emotional connection I feel with a place is from the relationships I form with the people I meet there.
Leonard Yang, Let’s Hold Hands #02, 2020. Oil on canvas, 40 x 56cm. Photo courtesy of Art Yourself Studio, Leonard Yang. © Leonard Yang
JO: That’s beautiful. I’d love to take this a little further and, again, in line with the title “Bringing Home, Home,” in your experience, whether it was moving from Singapore to New York, or New York to Singapore, what was it about the first home (whichever one it is) that you brought with you to the second home?
LY: I think it’s… That’s interesting. I think I also see [“home”] as a metaphor for myself, as a shell for myself. So I’m bringing myself from one home to another, and the self comes with a lot of burdens. Physical burdens, be it physically heavy or having to bring all the things from one place to another, or burdens that you can see in an emotional way. Like, I have to carry the emotional weight of moving from one place to another. So I think that was what I felt I was bringing from one place to another, how I had to tell myself that things will be okay, tell myself that I will be able to continue painting and making work, and being ok as an artist, and being ok with being uncertain about things. I don’t know how things will turn out here, I don’t know how things will turn out there, but I think I’m ready for it and I will try my best to be ready for whatever this move brings about.
JO: That’s lovely, I really like that idea! Home as the self didn’t quite occur to me until you said it just now.
Ok so, we’re not going to reveal all of your work in this interview, people will just have to go see the online exhibition for themselves, but I really wanted to talk about these four specific paintings from this collection: the “Let’s Hold Hands” paintings. In paintings “2” and “3,” the hands look like they’re reaching out and, in general, I just thought that the positioning of the hands in these paintings are so interesting. So would it be correct to assume, based on the title, that they are reaching out for another hand? If so, or if not, what else are they reaching for?
LY: Yeah, I did want them to be seen like they’re reaching out! So, on one hand, the first motivation I had for these paintings, or rather, the hand gestures, was gestures of reaching out. Reaching out to show care, reaching out to show support for people who might not be of your skin colour, which is why they are in different colours. Some of them are yellow, some are a little more white, some are brown, black… So that’s the first immediate thought that came to my mind, which is why they’re part of a series too—you can’t have just one hand by itself.
The other thought that I had was that I remembered certain hand gestures could signify healing in different religious contexts, or different spiritual contexts. In the Buddhistic context, there are mudras, specific gestures that signify healing. And I felt like, out of everything, one thing we should take away from this crisis both on a personal level and a collective level is to reach out and show more care and concern to one another. So that was the main idea behind this series.
If you look at some of the painted hands, the last one (number 4) looks a little contorted, so there is this acknowledgement of turmoil and difficulty that people face. It’s not always a smooth sailing journey, it’s not always a journey of healing, but there are tensions and contortion in terms of how human bodies are suffering. That was my experience and that was what I felt, living through the crisis and having to move. I may not have seen it in this light if I were to just be in one place. I learnt this through having to move and having to realize that there are places in this world that are more privileged than other places.
“I remember it was in the palm. If you’re
pointing your palm outwards, that was
showing compassion, or showing healing.”
JO: I love how you brought up number 4 because that was definitely the next one that I really wanted to hear you talk about and, it changes from painting to painting but, in number 4, there are these… tendrils? Around the fingers. So, depending on how you see it, the hand could be pulling those tendrils toward itself, or it could be stretching, breaking free from them. Which is it for you?
LY: I do think that my paintings are intentionally vague or they leave room for interpretation. I guess you could see them as tendrils, or you could see them as ropes, or they could even be chains. I try to not be too detailed, because I’m not a super detailed painter. I love working on details but I’m not trained as a realist painter so I wouldn’t be able to paint in that way—but I think that’s also the fun part. The fact that you can see them as tendrils, or ropes, or chains, or bringing [the hand] down or letting them break out from it. The dual meaning is deliberate. [The hand] can be breaking free or it can be like something is weighing it down and, if there’s something that’s weighing it down, I like to ask people, “what is weighing them down?” What are the elements that are bringing people down in society?
I tend to be a positive person in general so, across my paintings, there is a silver lining so that it’s like: ok, society is weighing people down and this crisis is affecting people unevenly, but there should be a silver lining of hope or a silver lining that shows people can still break free and we can be a better place in the future.
JO: Yeah, I can appreciate that. So, for my last question about these specific hand paintings, we haven’t talked about number 1. The hand in it has this very specific position… what is the significance behind that?
LY: I think this was the one that was directly inspired by—or it was the one that makes the closest reference to—a gesture of healing that I mentioned earlier. I can’t remember the name of this specific mudra or this specific healing but I remember it was in the palm. If you’re pointing your palm outwards, that was showing compassion, or showing healing. So that was what I remembered and that’s the reason for the painting too.
Leonard Yang, Let’s Hold Hands #01, 2020. Oil on canvas, 40 x 56cm. Photo courtesy of Art Yourself Studio, Leonard Yang. © Leonard Yang
JO: That’s really cool, I definitely didn’t know about that... Thank you for teaching me that!
As a way of just rounding everything off, I thought we could talk about the painting that inspired this entire exhibition, “Bringing Home, Home.” In the curatorial essay that Yen Phang wrote for this exhibition, he phrases it in a really beautiful way when he talks about how a home is bounded and transported in this painting. That really made me think about how everything you mentioned so far really speaks to people with multiple homes, whether that is an international student or a migrant or someone in the process of immigrating. A lot of that experience is defined by distance. So, the question is, if you could bind, carry, and transport an entire physical home with you, would you do it?
LY: I think… I would do it. But I also recognize that I’m a pretty simple-minded person. I don’t need a lot of things to call home. As an artist, I keep telling myself that to be able to have the opportunity to paint or to have the opportunity to create work is itself a blessing. Artists have to hustle. We hustle for our gigs and hustle to make paintings. So… I don’t know. I feel like I’m more mobile than other people, just because I don’t have a lot of physical things to bring with me. I mean, I would love to bring my family members with me, but I think they are more rooted to Singapore than I am, so I’m not going to pack them in a box and ship them with me. So yeah, I can be very simple-minded about my artistic pursuits and my lifestyle.
JO: I love how your answer ties perfectly back to the beginning of our conversation, where you talked about being happy to be reunited with your artistic tools after transporting them from New York to Singapore!
I guess that just leaves our final question: what are you working on now (if you are working on anything)?
Leonard Yang, Bringing Home, Home, 2020. Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 152cm. Photo courtesy of Art Yourself Studio, Leonard Yang. © Leonard Yang
LY: I’m currently being very inspired by the plants and wildlife around my home and my neighbourhood, or just in Singapore in general. I could go on a hike and see so many different trees and so many different plants, so I’m thinking of a way to paint them. As you can see from my paintings, I use a lot of plants as metaphors, like how you can read ropes as tendrils [on the hands], so plant-life has been in my paintings for a while. I’ve been getting very inspired by them, just looking around and I’ve been thinking of trying to make something out of that. I’m still trying to think of a concept that brings everything together so… something should come up over the next few months, hopefully!