David Zink Yi presents his newest ceramic works at the Carlone Contemporary Hall. The anatomically precise, cast tentacles of a dissected octopus will make for an unexpected sight amidst the baroque splendour of the Belvedere. The antecedent violence of dismemberment stands as a symbol for the process of artistic creation and human appropriation.
Despite comprising head and limbs, squids are creatures most dissimilar to humans. They have the power to light up their skin and extremities and change their body shape and appearance in a matter of seconds. Living in the eternal darkness of oceanic depths, the light they are accustomed to is solely their own. As the antipode of the human, for Zink Yi they intrinsically represent the alien. These objects of his, in addition, explore the limits of ceramic as material; in working with it, the process of transformation is never predictable and always contains an alchemical element.
Born in 1973 in Peru, Zink Yi completed an apprenticeship for wood sculpture in Munich, followed by studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the University of Fine Arts in Berlin. In 2012 he was represented at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein with a solo show and, in 2013, exhibited at the 55th Venice Biennale. In his multidisciplinary work the artist traces social structures and the construction of identity and explores the artistic creative process. Zink Yi lives and works in Berlin.