An Education examines observations about toys, commercials, marketing strategy, and education, connecting contemporary life to children’s development through interrogating the interplay of toys, machines, and set design. An Education casts doubt on the educational purpose compiled into children’s toys by manufacturers and marketers and considers the potential introspection created when toys are displayed in a window, and integrated with machinery. By assembling the bouncy balls with slinkies, and setting up a fan on the side, Lana turns each unit of the installation into a performative object. However, all their activities are confined to the same space. Liveliness is an illusion created under the influence of machines.
Artist Bio
Lana Yuan
Lana Yuan is a kinetic sculptor and installation artist currently based in Toronto. Her practice is driven by demonstrated contemplation of accelerated consumerism and mechanism society. By fabricating and reassembling hardware, household waste, and children’s toys, Lana explores deep personal emotions, human relations, and social attribution, Her sculptures embody cautionary observations reflecting on consumption and technology’s increasingly pervasive role in human habitual activities. Some of her shows include: “System” in Gallery 1265,UTSC campus and the Shelley Peterson Student Art Exhibition Art Museum at the University of Toronto both in 2019. She graduated in 2020 as a Bachelor of Studio Art (with Distinction) from University of Toronto.