Fence — Echo Youyi Yan

You May Touch the Fence, 2025

In her most recent works, Yan extends the logic of domestication beyond the sculptural object to encompass the viewer’s own body. Introducing physical fences as both sculptural and curatorial devices, she choreographs movement through the exhibition space—guiding, constraining, and taming the act of looking itself.

Titled You May Touch the Fence, the installation begins with a directory sign of the same writing. The fences divide the space, compelling visitors to crawl, bend, or peer through narrow openings to glimpse the sculptures within. In these gestures, the body is choreographed into acts of obedience and curiosity. The fence is not merely a boundary but a curatorial agent, dictating vision and movement. The decision to enter, to cross, or to stay outside becomes an act of voluntary domestication—an acknowledgment of how power can seduce as much as it restrains.