Join artist Chris Zhongtian Yuan for a guided tour of 'Two Improvisations' — his first UK institutional solo exhibition at esea contemporary. This artist-led walkthrough offers an opportunity to encounter the exhibition through Yuan’s own reflections on improvisation, punk filmmaking, mythology, and DIY aesthetics.
Centred around the newly commissioned Two Improvisations: A Punk Musical (2026), the exhibition combines stop-motion animation, musical performance, handmade props, and sculptural installation to explore how personal histories, subcultures, and marginalised identities circulate within broader political and cultural narratives. Drawing on the figure of the Yěrén (野人) — an elusive ape-like being from Chinese folklore — Yuan approaches the ‘wild man’ as a shifting metaphor for artistic otherness, visibility, and resistance.
Moving between film set, stage, and installation, the tour will offer insight into the processes, references, and collaborative energies that shape the exhibition, as well as the role of improvisation as both a creative method and political stance.
Attendance is free, however booking is required due to limited capacity.
Chris Zhongtian Yuan (b. 1988, Wuhan) is an artist based in London. Their practice centres on ‘punk filmmakingʼ, which deploys techniques drawn from improvisational music and experimental animation. Moving fluidly between reality and myth, digital and analogue, Yuan's work examines the role of memory in familial, domestic and institutional spaces and relationships.
Yuan has presented work internationally, including at John Hansard Gallery; Studio Voltaire; Surplus Space, Wuhan; Current Plans, Hong Kong; Somerset House; Reading International; Macalline Art Center, Beijing; The Courtauld Institute of Art; Kunsthal Rotterdam; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; Guangdong Times Museum; Whitechapel Gallery; OCAT Institute, Beijing; Power Station of Art; Videox Zurich; and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, among others. They have also contributed to the Venice Architecture Biennale (Greek Pavilion) and the B3 Moving Image Biennale. Yuan holds an AA Diploma from the Architectural Association School of Architecture.
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