Yang Fudong is known for his atmospheric painting-like films, which reinterpret classical Chinese art. His latest series, Endless Peaks (2020)—comprising cinematic acrylic canvases, photographs, and videos—marks a shift in media for the artist.

Shanshui (“mountainous waterscape”) paintings are not just representations of nature, but also reflect metaphysical states. The latter is introduced via the rendering of thousands of peaks in multiple, shifting perspectives, which invite viewers to wander within the landscapes of their minds and hearts, according to the 11th-century, Northern Song dynasty artist Guo Xi’s canonical painting manual. Yang brought these literati ideals to the present at ShanghArt Shanghai’s two-story gallery. Endless Peaks I and II, both consisting of paintings and photographs, are conjoined in a row like a handscroll or the negatives of a film roll. Among the images are close-ups of Buddhist saints in idyllic sceneries, rendered in black and white after the respectively bold and delicate styles of Yan Hui and Shitao, early Yuan

and Qing dynasty painters, whose lohan scrolls attracted Yang due to their exquisite ambiences. Interspersed with these panels are monochromatic photographs of forests, taken from afar at Mount Tiantai’s Guoqing Temple, where Chinese Buddhism first flourished in the 6th century. Audiences are inserted into the compositions via their reflections on the works’ glass coverings, manifesting a version of Guo’s shanshui principle. Additionally, Endless Peaks I conceals a pair of sliding doors to the second floor, functioning as a conduit for viewers to enter another environment.

In a darkened room upstairs, the multimedia installation Endless Peaks III projects colored videos of actors dressed as monks, deep in thought, onto rows of sketches and photographs of Guoqing Temple, accentuating meditation and serenity. This, like the rest of Yang’s series, fosters a sense of oneness with self and nature, recalling the tenets that literati painters of centuries past encapsulated in their compositions