Trevor Yeung: Soft ground

About

Gasworks presents the first UK solo exhibition by Hong Kong-based artist Trevor Yeung. His work excavates the inner logics of power structures, looking at how these create conditions for desire and subjectivity to emerge. In his carefully staged installations, the lives of plants and animals become a medium to subtly address notions of normativity and control within social relations.

Gardening and generative practices of care are central to Yeung's work. While exploring human dominance and the domestication of nature, his practice opens a space where caring encounters take place and living beings negotiate their ways of cohabiting. His delicate sculptures and installations are permeated with intimacy and vulnerability, often in the form of controlled environments which are presented as observations of the human condition.

Stemming from his residency at Delfina Foundation in 2022, Yeung's exhibition looks at the complex social dynamics and interspecies relationships that take place in London’s historical cruising areas. Specifically, his upcoming new commission at Gasworks revolves around a large-scale soap cast of Hampstead Heath's infamous 'fuck tree', whose bark is notoriously polished due to its nocturnal use by the gay cruising community over decades. 

Employing light and scent as key elements in his sculptural work, Yeung will transform the gallery to interrogate his emotional connection with Hampstead Heath, a park that is popular among cruisers since the 19th Century, while exploring the fluid interplay between night and day, public and private life, hiding from others and being seen.  

Yeung's exhibition is commissioned and produced by Gasworks, London in partnership with Para Site, Hong Kong with the generous support of the Henry Moore Foundation.

Gasworks commissions are supported by Catherine Petitgas and Gasworks Exhibitions Supporters.