姚文清 Wenqing Yao is a London-based moving image artist. She holds a BA in Visual Communication from the Beijing University of Technology and an MA in Information Experience Design from the Royal College of Art.
Deeply engaging with the topics of post-humanism, Yao wish to tell the story of the marginalized citizens: the nocturnal urban wildlife, the disciplined trees, the artificial forest, and the speechless land. Her works aim to use moving images as a medium to provocatively examine how the public consumes, exploits, and ridicules these creatures, reducing them to a source of entertainment. By using speculative narrative, Yao’s works question the privilege that we claim as human beings, and the ethics of what we are doing to these, our fellow non-humans.
Her artist’s films have been screened and exhibited across UK, Germany, China and Metaverse. Including London Short FIlm Festival, Clapham International Film Festival, Alpha Film Festival, and HiShorts! Film Festival. And she has exhibited with University of Heidelberg, Safehouse2, Ircam Paris, ArtSect Gallery, Stanley Arts, IKLECTIK, and Royal College of Art. Yao has contributed to discussions on art and ecology through workshops such as Deep Ecology and the Sublime (2021), reflecting her commitment to exploring the intersections of environmental consciousness and artistic practice.
EXHIBITIONS
2023 Animation Exhibition Heidelberg, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
2022 International Female Filmmakers Showcase, Stanley Arts, London, UK
At the edge of Safehouse, Safehouse2, London, UK
WIP Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Graduate Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2021 Art for Artists, ArtSect Gallery, London, UK
Ircam Paris, Online, Paris, France
White Noise, IKLECTIK, London, UK
Proximity & Distance: 37.5665° N, 126.9780° E to 51.5074° N 0.1278° W Art Festival, Shanghai & London, UK & China
Echoes of Science, Online
FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS
2023 Alpha Film Festival, MILC Metaverse, Germany
Clapham International Film Festival, London, UK
2022 London Short Film Festival, ICA, London, UK
2021 HiShorts! Film Festival, Xiamen, China
WORKSHOP AND TALK
2021 Deep Ecology and the Sublime, Online