Based in Shanghai, Chinese artist Yang Fudong has gained worldwide recognition for his multimedia installations incorporating material shot on richly textured, black-and-white 35 mm film. His five-part film cycle "Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest" (2003-07) was one of the defining works in the 2007 Venice Biennale, where each film in the cycle had its own viewing booth in a line down the center of the Arsenale exhibition hall.

Yang's current exhibition at Tokyo's Hara Museum of Contemporary Art is his first solo presentation in Japan. The exhibition of carefully selected works comprises five pieces from across Yang's career, including Part 3 of the "Seven Intellectuals" cycle and a large multimedia installation, "The General's Smile" (2009), involving multiple projectors, video monitors, neon signage and a banquet table. An early work, "Backyard — Hey! Sun is Rising" (2001), will be shown in its original 35 mm print every Sunday during the exhibition period.

The Japan Times met with Yang before the opening of the exhibition to discuss his approach to making works driven by both beautiful formal composition and an unflinching investigation of China's contemporary reality.