[2] As an artist migrating from China to North America, both her identity and her work pass through the complex filters of different countries, languages, and cultural expectations.
Yan draws on personal experience from her earlier life in China and eventual immigration to Canada in reimagining these traditional visual languages through a contemporary perspective.
"[9] In her 2018 exhibition In Suspended Silence, at the Richmond Art Gallery in British Columbia, Canada, "Yan combined two bodies of work that derive from classical Chinese ink wash painting and portrait sculpture.
"[9] "It is through the use of traditional Chinese materials and art-historical references that her work navigates a transformative space between culture and identity.
Carefully controlling humidity, temperature and light, a lingzhi mycelium starts to grow and once it has assumed the proper shape and a viable state, the mold is removed.