Steel Garden is a solo exhibition by Paris-based artist Yao Qingmei, marking her first major presentation with the gallery. Known for an interdisciplinary practice that bridges performance, video, photography, and installation, Yao examines how bodies move through—and are shaped by—structures of power, public ritual, and the choreography of collective life.
At the heart of the exhibition is Steel Garden, her latest two-channel video installation. The work draws from the grand floral displays erected annually during moments of national celebration. Through a series of precise and lingering images—close-ups of flowers, birds foraging among cracks, weeds growing between paving stones, the varied postures of visitors, and the synchronised gesture of crowds during the flag-raising ceremony—Yao reveals the subtle relationships between individual action, collective ritual, and the constructed natural landscape.
Venue: ShanghART Singapore, 9 Lock Road, #02-22, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108937
When: 13 Dec 2025 - 5 Feb 2026, 12noon - 6pm, Wednesday to Sunday
