The Bananafish Summer Reading Club has reached its tenth session, and last Saturday marked the final gathering of this summer.
To conclude this series, Bananafish invited the artist Guo Yiran, with whom we have collaborated numerous times, to share her artist’s book. Yiran’s works encompass various forms, with painting and ceramics being her initial and frequent mediums of expression. She compiles pieces created through these two mediums into her art book, employing RISO printing to transform the colors of her works. Combined with her enigmatic artistic style, this approach creates a misty and somewhat contradictory yet intriguing visual experience, echoing the fragmented aspects of life she records.
During this session, Yiran shared her artist’s book, RISO prints, and ceramic works. In addition to this, she discussed the books that have influenced her creative process and showcased some RISO publications.
About the Artist
Guo Yiran
A freelance artist and art course instructor, Guo Yiran divides her life and work between New York and Shanghai.
Her work has been featured in publications such as “Booooooom,” “Osso Magazine,” and “Ballpitmag.” Her animated creations have been showcased at various film festivals worldwide, earning her prestigious awards from organizations like the American Illustration Association (Society of Illustrators) and Ai-ap. Her artist’s book, “Höuse,” is available for promotion and sale at New York art publisher Printed Matter and various art bookstores, including SSHH.
Yiran has been invited multiple times as a lecturer in experimental art cinema at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. She has also served as a part-time art instructor at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York, where she is responsible for researching and teaching courses related to materials and creativity.
As an artist, her work takes on various forms, including music videos, RISO printing, ceramics, and collages. In her free time, she enjoys crafting, such as making bread and pottery.
“My most of my creations are drawn from snippets of life, and the form of handmade books serves as a means of documentation. These works, inspired by fragments of life (ceramics with no practical use, spontaneous sketches, inexplicable life notes), reunite within handmade books, finding new homes in the vibrant colors and coarse printing textures of RISO.”
-Guo Yiran
Selected Works:
<Höuse> (2018)
RISO Print
This book is a reinterpretation of my paintings and sketches. I repeatedly use a unique print based on a house as a prototype throughout the book, creating an enchanting and haunting effect.
<One Page Zine> (2018)
RISO Print
<On the Way> (2020)
RISO Print
“On the Way” features a series of artworks by the artist Guo Yiran, depicting strangers on the streets and subway lines of New York City. The pieces capture the fleeting glimpses of humanity within the bustling crowds of New York City, using charcoal and colored pencils to create fluid lines and delicate tones.
Prints/Ceramics:
More Photos:
Yiran is also an exhibitor at the 2023 UNFOLD Shanghai Art Book Fair with her RISO print store. She is one of the artists in residence for the Bananafish Bookstore’s artist book residency program and has collaborated with us on the exhibition “Guo Yiran: Daily Archaeology – Handmade Ceramics and Ink Works.”
Guo Yiran: Daily Archaeology December 25, 2022, to January 9, 2022, at the Bananafish Yanping Road Store.