Spanning photography, sculpture and installation, Trevor Yeung‘s practice explores human behaviours on a personal and social level, probing ideas and inconsistencies around what is considered “natural” and “unnatural”. He often uses plants and live nature to create worlds that are somewhat metaphorical of human social relationships and processes.
He has exhibited internationally, and his work is currently on show at Eva International in Limerick.
“Since getting my first fish tank and carnivorous plant, I have installed lamps in my bedroom to provide extra light for them to live and grow better. I decided to also put a number of lamps in my studio because it is without a balcony or any direct sunlight. These lamps provide an ideal spectrum for my plants and my worktable, which means not relying on the weakened natural light coming through my aged and fogged windows. Bulbs play an important role in my life and my artworks; once I started bringing plants and aquarium supplies into my work, the lamp definitely became a key element of my art practice.
Colour temperature, for me, is quite a dominant reason behind using light as a tool in my work. When I was really young, my mother once told me ‘yellow light is for relaxation’—because it makes you sleepy—and ‘white light is for work’. The power of light can do much more than make you sleepy; it can easily hide visual information by filtering out certain colours.
It seems I have mainly talked about ‘light lamps’ but not the ‘light bulb’. The bulb is the most convenient way of managing the light sources in my practice. Using the same type of socket, the bulb can create a variety of effects within a limited condition, particularly in a site-specific installation. I use a large range of bulbs for different things, including UVB lights to fade the pigments on photographs, and basking spotlights to melt wax slowly and gently.”
