2-channel 4K Video ｜ 9’50’’ ｜ 2022 ｜ 7200 × 2430px

Glows in the Arctic is created during the Covid pandemic from 2020 to 2022, when the world went through a time of isolation separately, and when countries become more divided than ever before. As an artist living between two countries, Yongliang has experienced the pandemic both in New York, and back home in Shanghai. He realized that even thought the same virus is perceived in different ways, people’s shared memories during the period is more similar than different.

In response, Glows in the Arctic brings together urban landscapes from various continents, including and not limited to New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Paris, London and Tokyo - these are the cities the artist has travelled the year before the pandemic locked down many. From the midpoint of the video, a celestial change emerges in this imagined landscape, and it makes human behaviors and city nightlife to correspond in a shocking way...