Selected Press

Critics

He Guiyan

Director, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Museum · PhD, Central Academy of Fine Arts

Interpreting Song Yulin’s “Formatting”

Since 2007, Song Yulin has been creating her Formatting series. A defining characteristic is the presence of recognizable images overlaid with countless short lines...

Since 2007, Song Yulin has been creating her Formatting series. A defining characteristic of these works is the presence of recognizable images that are overlaid with countless short lines, rendering them partially obscured yet still identifiable in terms of their origins and sources, often tied to the artist's personal memories. Clearly, Song Yulin's paintings convey a seemingly contradictory visual relationship, where the covering and revealing of images coexist in a state of mutual entanglement and irreconcilable tension. Her works neither belong to abstract painting nor align with traditional representational painting; rather, they resemble conceptual painting.

For Song Yulin, “formatting” symbolizes a thorough forgetting or an active clearing of the mind. The process of covering images is essentially a conceptual expression of past memories. However, this “formatting” is not absolute—“covering” is not a negation but rather a tampering with the original image. A new image, distinct from the original, begins to emerge. This process reflects the artist's complex and contradictory attitude toward memory—both dissolving and reconstructing it.

In terms of formal expression, Song Yulin's works exhibit a quality of “extreme multiplicity.” The intricate forms not only encompass the creative process but also harbor a sense of temporality. These forms are marked by uncertainty—the formal expression can continue indefinitely. In summary, through the covering and tampering of images, Song Yulin expresses an individual's attitude toward memory and life itself.

Sheng Wei

Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Fine Arts Magazine · AICA Member

Formatting — On the Journey

Song Yulin names her paintings Formatting, a term borrowed from computer terminology. Her creative process is slow, each piece requiring considerable time, yet for her this process feels natural and even enjoyable...

Song Yulin names her paintings Formatting, a term borrowed from computer terminology. Her works begin with portraits, and upon “completion,” she overlays them with a network of intricate lines, often applying multiple layers in different colors. The final result is a composite of faintly visible figures intertwined with a web of lines. As the artist herself states, “In my Formatting, I try to wear down certain things; there is pleasure in the lines.”

Despite this, her paintings embody an inherent contradiction. On one hand, she views her painting as a form of self-denial. On the other hand, this act can also be seen as self-affirmation, as the original image always naturally reveals traces of “the past.” As she explains, “The process of destruction is, in fact, the process of affirming the self,” and “As an artist, the act of painting itself is a form of affirmation. It feels like being ‘on the journey’… my sense of self becomes increasingly heightened.”

Hang Chunxiao

Researcher & Doctoral Supervisor, Chinese National Academy of Arts

From Disorientation to Rationality — The Spirit of Questioning in Post-70s Art

Among post-70s female painters, Song Yulin exhibits a profound rationalist sensibility. Her Formatting series employs an almost rigorous rational approach to deconstruct painting subjects into pure pictorial language. In other words, she seeks to dissolve the conventional subject of painting through the act of painting itself. This creative method carries a strong paradoxical quality—the existence of the painting act presupposes a painting subject. Yet, in Song Yulin's hands, this dependency becomes a relationship of dissolution.

Formatting—Einstein, created in 2009, emerged during a period when Song Yulin faced the demolition of her studio and an unstable livelihood. This state of instability mirrors “formatting” in computing—destroying an existing order only to leave a blank slate. For the post-70s generation, the understanding of the world manifests as constant “refreshing” and “transformation,” breeding instability and skepticism that prompts a re-examination of all things deemed valuable.

The underlying image of Einstein aligns with our habitual visual recognition. However, Song Yulin's relentless painting process does not aim to refine this image but rather to disrupt it. Ultimately, this disruption results in a visual experience of abstraction. This transformation serves as an allegory for her generation's existence—a journey from birth to death marked by the continual blurring of life's purpose.

Curators

Qi Tingjie

Curator, Bailihu International Culture Investment Group Beijing Art Center

Era Imagery — From “Formatting” to “Eighteen Beats”

From the inception of contemporary art to its diverse landscape today, its evolution has consistently been driven by a spirit of autonomous rebellion. Song Yulin is one such artist...

From the inception of contemporary art to its diverse landscape today, its evolution has consistently been driven by a spirit of autonomous rebellion. Song Yulin is one such artist. Her creative practice subtly defies established norms while following her inner sensibilities, constructing a new artistic language that logically engages with the deconstructed subject, advancing through continuous questioning.

Since 2007, Song Yulin has embarked on her Formatting series. After accidentally disrupting an unsatisfactory work with lines, she discovered that repeatedly covering and dissolving images with lines formed a new creative mode, which she named “formatting.” The act of revision becomes a means of self-affirmation, intertwined with pain, pleasure, conflict, and doubt, transforming the painting experience into a discipline of the mind.

If the Formatting series represents a relatively subtle exploration of inner pursuits, the Eighteen Beats series is a more direct and intense expression of reality—what I term “era imagery.” The lines in Eighteen Beats become more twisted, chaotic, and entangled. The imagery shifts from real-life figures to socially resonant elements like cranes and steel. As Song Yulin has said, “In the Formatting series, I depicted many contemporary figures, but I always seemed to observe them detachedly from the sidelines. This time, I could neither remain uninvolved nor find a way to escape.”

Dense layers of paint spread across the canvas like aimless yet orderly lines, forming an intricate web with no apparent end. Through repeated covering and outlining, she erodes the pre-set underdrawing beyond recognition, giving rise to a new subject. The images submerged beneath the lines become ever clearer to the viewer's eye.

Li Guohua

Young Curator & Critic

From Chaotic Destruction to Ordered Reconstruction

The process from chaotic destruction to ordered reconstruction is the key to Song Yulin's Formatting series. She attempts to dismantle and erase her intuitive attitudes and memories of social phenomena, building an intensely personal form of memory and social perspective through the use of varied lines over a foundation of realistic painting.

Since 2007, Song Yulin has been creating her Formatting series. A common feature of these works is the layering of multiple colored lines over initial portraits, forming a network that conceals the original, intuitive image at the bottom of the canvas. Each piece reveals an almost relentless sense of temporality, self-denial, continuous attempts at construction, and an unyielding pursuit of inner perfection. Through the concept of an invisible network present in social life, she persistently dissolves her own perceptions and attitudes toward existence. This is destined to be a long journey of transforming life experiences into a shift in spiritual outlook.

Wang Che

Curator, Long-term Projects in Non-Urban Spaces

Self-Formatting: Memory, Network and Existence

Beneath the faintly visible figures, the artist conveys her method of self-formatting—an almost relentless sense of temporality, self-denial, and continuous attempts at construction...

A common feature of these works is the layering of multiple colored lines over initial portraits, forming a network that conceals the original, intuitive image at the bottom of the canvas. Each piece reveals an almost relentless sense of temporality, self-denial, continuous attempts at construction, and an unyielding pursuit of inner perfection. Through the concept of an invisible network, she persistently dissolves her own perceptions and attitudes toward existence. This is destined to be a long journey of transforming life experiences into a shift in spiritual outlook.