A project about water both as metaphor and material reality by artist Keke Yang. Born and raised in China, Yang is currently based in New York City. Yang earned a BA in Photomedia from the University of Washington and an MFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design in New York. Drawing inspiration from cultural experiences and the fluid dynamics of gender identity, her work considers the nature of existence through photography, video, installations, and performance. “Before Anyone Noticed” uses water as subject matter and material substance to explore ideas of transformation, instability, and ways of being.

“I am drawn to water’s shifting states and behaviours, movement between containment and expansion. I also work with balloons and everyday materials that suggest tension, permeability, vulnerability, and constant change. Through photography, I recontextualize these materials and construct metaphorical situations in which bodies, objects, and environments interact without fixed meanings. Water becomes a way of thinking about gender and identity as fluid and continually negotiated rather than stable categories.”

Keke Yang shared this project via the Submissions section of our site.