Cizzoe Yi Wang

About

Yi Wang (Cizzoe, b. 2000, China) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans documentary film, installation, sculpture, and performance.

She graduated with first-class honors in Film Practices from Newcastle University, where she was awarded an academic prize for excellent research. In 2022, she completed her MA in Ethnographic and Documentary Film with distinction at UCL. Her documentary shorts have been selected and awarded at film festivals including the Royal Television Society and Screen Power Film Festival.

Since 2023, she has been exploring ways to integrate her practical research experience in anthropology into contemporary art practice through her MA course at the Royal College of Art. Human participation remains the core element of all her works. Her current practice investigates group dynamics in social interactions, particularly focusing on the dynamic equilibrium and reversible relationships within triangular relationship. This equilibrium refers to how power and control flow and shift between three individuals in a group, and the ambiguity between control and destruction. Cizzoe translates these intricate interpersonal relationships into the creation of concept-based game plays. She writes game instructions in a way that allow for the coexistence of competition and collaboration to take place, as well as order and disorder, boundaries and transgressions, intentional and unintentional decisions, loss of control within control, and conflict within harmony.

Cizzoe often uses the number three, or triangle or the concept of triangular relationship, to unfold her work. Triangle is a stable structure, but consists of one-to-one oppositions, and it also applies to human relationships. The dynamic among three people encapsulates the coexistence of intimacy, distance, and conflict inherent in human interactions. She views her game works as the studies of human, culture and society. ‘To me, encountering with others are like chemical experiments, the intriguing part is observing different and sometimes opposing characters and reflecting the resulting reactions.’ Her works sometimes can be joyful and intimate, but can also be serious or absurd, depending on the combination of people involved at the time.