Total immersion

One of the artist's own paintings appears on the wall in the second scene of the work, which depicts Yu's childhood. The work is part of her ongoing Witness to Growth series, an annual biographical series where she produces a self-portrait and pairs it with an image from a news article recording a key event that year. Another work from the series depicting the year of 1992 was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum's Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World.

In the 1992 painting, Yu is seen cutting her hair in a portrait taken from her movie The Days, the debut by filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai. Yu and her husband, Liu Xiaodong, who's also a famous oil painter, played the lead roles as an artist couple in the movie.

"Every year, I paint a work to record my life, often just to document common things or interesting moments that I think deserve to be remembered," explains Yu.

Yu gained fame early on. When she was still a freshman at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, one of her sketches was selected as a painting for an educational art book aimed at teenagers. After graduation, she became an art teacher at the academy, where she still works.

Painting has become an important part in Yu's life－one she regards as a refuge from the rapidly evolving technological world outside.

And while her first foray into virtual reality has proved to be an interesting experience, it's unlikely she will pursue the emerging technology as her career. Oil painting is, after all, her life's work.

If you go

10 am-6 pm, through Feb 3. Faurschou Foundation, 798 art zone, 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5978-9316.