What lies beyond the horizon? Many a frontier has been sought out, met and traversed in search of an answer to this question, and yet be it in the natural world or the vast cosmos, what humans are able to observe and comprehend remains but a tiny fraction of a much larger whole.
The limitations of human perception are a guiding force for London-based Chinese illustrator Yangyi Fu, who appeals to our imaginative impulse to discover beyond the physical realm. From this particular position, she constructs visual spaces that occupy the liminality between reality and fiction, guiding us to temporarily step away from our established perceptions and re-examine the relationships between both humans and the
environment and life and the cosmos with wider eyes and open hearts.
Beyond the Iris (2025) is one such work, dealing with the narrow sensory bounds of the human condition. In her illustration, Fu subverts the omniscient Eye of Providence into a symbol of unbounded totality, free of religious connotations yet equally ineffable. Leaving us with the crude anatomy of the human eye and filling the iris with non-human matter such as crystals, cacti, and constellations of stars further removes any anthropocentric or theological readings. For Fu, these elements are not separate from one another, or for that matter, competing in a hierarchy, but rather collectively form a constantly evolving, interdependent web of life. To this end, the artist ensures we experience them on equal planes, too, with the screen-tone textures of marine life mimicking those of the clouds and mountains.
Fu’s illustration depicts a fatal breach in object relations by bringing about a kind of ego death. Ruptured, the content of the mind’s eye (telluric, cosmic, and oneiric) seeps into an impossible storybook setting. Cyclopean cephalopods commingle with floating planets and fluorescent fungi. Palm trees, rooted to their patch of earth, float amidst the stars. Where mystic symbolism is deployed (in spirals, stars and crystals, for instance), the effect isn’t overbearing or trite but a purposeful contribution to a universe that feels at once familiar and unknown. The resulting feeling is one of profound unity between the real and the imagined aspects of creation.
Though there remains a trace of humanity’s pioneering fantasies, where a balloon tender is caught in its cartoon surrounds, for example, there are no humans in Fu’s composition. Perhaps the vista is better for it. Perhaps it is enough for us to consider our place in it all from beyond the iris.
