In 2015, when artist and illustrator Yansu Wang moved to Italy to study, she received a notebook containing a map of Milan as a gift. That sparked the idea of creating a true Junk Journal: a visual diary made of collages, piecing together repurposed materials that narrate her daily life. This work will be showcased in It’s all Paperwork, an exhibition designed for the spaces of Galleria Numero 51 in Milan. Among the various elements that compose these pages are receipts, flyers, tickets, instructions, candy wrappers, and even notes scribbled on scraps of paper.

The exhibition presents a selection of her pop-up books alongside new works created in collaboration with Pineider, an Italian brand that provided fine paper and exclusive notebooks for her latest creations.

The Art of Collage and China

While in the West, collage is associated with 20th-century artistic movements like Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Pop Art, it also boasts an ancient tradition in China. Paper, invented around 200 BC, was used as a creative medium as early as the 10th century. Notably, in the 19th century, the Bapo composition style—known as “Eight Fragments”—gained prominence. These artworks featured layers of calligraphic texts, fragments of letters, and symbols rich in hidden meanings. Such pieces, combining diverse elements to create evocative images, were considered an autonomous art form, distinct from classical painting and calligraphy.

Inspired by this tradition, Yansu Wang explores new expressive techniques, combining fragments of her daily life with symbols and words. Her collages—intertwining past and present, Eastern and Western cultures—transform ordinary objects into powerful narrative tools, offering a reflection on identity, memory, and the symbolic value of simple things.

The exhibition thus becomes a journey through worlds and traditions, where the art of collage emerges as a timeless and ever-evolving form of expression. On display from January 29 to March 16, 2025, at Galleria Numero 51 in Milan.