Alison Yip

On the occasion of Alison Yip’s exhibition, *Soma Topika*, which engages with divinatory practices as a means to envision alternative futures, Vancouver psychic Star Magic was invited to offer her reflections on Yip’s work.

Star Magic on Alison Yip

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Across her work in painting, wall treatments, writing, and sculpture, artist Alison Yip moves between the observational and the speculative. Known for an ongoing concern with the ambiguities and ambivalences of figuration and perception, Yip’s works often evoke transitional states, mystical forms and psychic or spiritual phenomena to consider the disconnected ways humans experience time, space, self, and relationships.

Reflecting on the radical systems failures and temporal shifts of the current moment, Yip’s most recent body of work, *Soma Topika*, led her to look for ways to envision alternative futures. Undertaking parallel divinatory processes, Yip engaged both a neo-shaman and a psychic, posing to each an identical set of questions about her life, relationships and desires. From this, she produced two sets of intimate oil paintings, depicting herself in each as a poseable mannequin in scenes that interpret the concurrent yet contradictory predictions delivered to her. Rendered on unconventional substrates — scraps of metal for the psychic’s predictions and laminate floor tiles for the neo-shaman’s — Yip presents these works at CAG amidst a gallery under renovation, offering a scene that is as provisional and unfixed as the futures she seeks.

### Biography

Alison Yip‘s multidisciplinary practice finds ways of speaking to the dispersed nature of our cognitive apparatus, often working from the psycho-phenomenal origins of figuration. Ambivalent tensions are evoked through a mix of withholding expressions, over-used or popular imagery and various pictorial modes. Yip holds a BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, Canada. She continued her studies at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany and in 2016 received an MFA from the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany. Recent solo, collaborative and group exhibitions include Galerie Noah Klink, Berlin; Mauer, Cologne; Mécènes du Sud, Montpellier; Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund; Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver; ACUD, Berlin; and Lady Helen, London.

ProgramGuideWinter2022.pdf

ExhibitionGuideAlisonYip.pdf

AlisonYipEssayTizianaLaMelia.pdf

A close up view of a painting depicting three seated figures, the central one is a life-size wooden doll, surrounded by two humans with crossed legs holding paper notes.

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An unfinished wooden wall structure in a gallery space on which hangs a wooden panel with black text, translucent plastic sheets and a small painting.  More paintings and a sculpture are visible through the wall.

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Three small paintings hang on a gallery wall draped with plastic sheetings. To the left is an unfinished wooden wall structure. A sculpture made of yellow textiles, plastic and rope sits on the floor. 

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Four small paintings on faux-marble tiles hang along a gallery wall draped with translucent plastic sheets.

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 Small paintings hang on gallery walls draped with plastic sheets. An angled view of an unfinished wall structure intersects the view. A sculpture made of textiles, plastic and rope sits on the floor. 

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An unfinished wooden wall structure in a gallery space, on which hangs a painting on faux-marble tile. More paintings hanging on the gallery walls and a sculpture are visible through the wall structure. 

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Two small paintings hang stacked on a gallery wall draped with translucent plastic sheets. The painting on the top is painted on a faux-marble tile, the one on the bottom on a vertical sheet of metal.

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A view through an unfinished wooden wall structure of two small paintings hanging on a gallery wall draped with translucent plastic sheets and a sculpture sitting on the floor made with yellow textiles. 

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Four small paintings on faux-marble tiles or metal sheets hang on gallery walls draped with translucent plastic sheets. A sculpture made of yellow textiles, plastic and rope sits on the floor. 

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 Four small paintings hang on gallery walls draped with translucent plastic sheets. A stack of pink paper and a sculpture made of yellow textiles, plastic and rope sits on the floor. 

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A small painting on a textured metal sheet hangs on a gallery wall draped with translucent plastic sheets.

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A corner view of two small paintings on metal sheets hanging on gallery walls draped in translucent plastic. A stack of bright pink papers sits on the floor at the base of the wall. 

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A small copper painting hangs on a white gallery wall draped in translucent plastic sheets. To the left a small blue painting on a metal sheer hangs on an unfinished wooden wall structure.

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Small paintings hang on gallery walls draped with plastic sheets. At the entrance is an unfinished wall structure, paintings hang on either side of it. A sculpture made of textiles, plastic and rope sits on the floor. 

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 A low-lying sculpture sits on a gallery floor. The sculpture is made of yellow and black scarves, brown rope and scraps of plastic packaging tied in knots and draped over a metal seat like structure. 

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A close view of a sculpture made of yellow and black scarves, brown rope and scraps of plastic packaging tied in knots and draped over a metal seat-like structure. 

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A security camera is surrounded by sheets of translucent plastic sheeting taped to the walls and ceiling in the corner of a gallery. 

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