Shuai Yang

As an instruction to the method of using herself as the measurement, How Much Is It No.1 employs three elements from the procedure of measurement: the measured existence, the measuring instrument, and the measurand (the result of measurement represented by Arabic numbers, imperial, and converted metric units here). It is made with a giveaway museum frame, allowing her to base the artistic mediation on the existing dimensions. Yang indicated the width of the framed image ground with a pencil line labeled “27 11/16 inches” and “70.32625 centimeters”, results gained from measuring with a wooden ruler bought in a convenience store. She then fixed the ruler underneath the measurand and drew a diagram at the bottom of the page displaying her body becoming the origin of a measuring unit.

How Much Is It No.2 emphasizes the act of measuring by attaching a bought metal ruler to the drawing. A second line reminds free and allows any potential way of encounterment. It is through a system of methods that we access phenomena of some sort, and these phenomena then become our knowledge of the world. The measurement system operates in this manner. The question is: does it disclose the truth or solely manifest the system itself to us?

How Much Is It No.3 explores the ontology of a ruler through deconstructive processes. The same industrialized wooden rulers are mediated in four ways: the first is left with numbers, the second with gradations, the third with only the wooden material, and the fourth with the symbolic presence of itself.

Through How Much Is It No.4 and No.5, the artist deconstructed rulers to demonstrate the fundamental mathematical idea of length, that is, the addition of a unit.

In How Much Is It No.6, Yang cut a ruler into centimeter fragments and fixed each piece of wood according to the inch system.

How Much Is It No.7 points at the unattainable nature of the signified. Once translated into material reality, measurement as a concept becomes impossible to grasp. Every attempt to reach the precise measurement has fallen - in the case of this work, the temptations were processed by cutting at the ruler’s inch marks and cutting to the matboard at one-inch intervals. Material nature impedes the manifestation of the perfect truth. Like language, measurement is a system of signifiers that point to but can never reach its signified.

How Much Is It No.8 prompts a physical condition in which the first inch of a ruler is to be decided by the viewer. The tiny wooden piece that was “before-zero” is placed on the raised edge, creating a situation in which the measurement of the first inch changes according to the viewer’s position, eventually disrupting the two-dimensionality of the perception of length.

How Much Is It No.9 and No.10 challenge the idea of a ruler (the representation of measurement, or measurement itself) by juxtaposing the material ruler and its image. In No.9, the ruler-image and the original equipment measure each other. In No.10, the upper ruler deceives the eyes and appears to be a material ruler, whereas it is a photo reproduction similar to the size of the original object. The lower ruler, an apparent blow-up image, is an accomplice to the fraud. It is worth noting that Yang has cleared out the text on the image reproductions, freeing these image-rulers from any predetermined scale.