Beijing-based artist Song Yige’s works frequently refer to her childhood and to the overwhelming sense of isolation of youth. Mundane, well-used objects which carry the presence of lived history, are depicted starkly isolated in the centre of Song Yige’s surreal compositions. In Out of control the jarring contrast with the cold, richly painted background points to a sense of darkness and of the unknown enveloping the present. Distinguished by her choice to deviate from the conventional post-1980s symbolism favoured by her Chinese contemporaries, Song Yige utilises classical representation and figuration as a means of exploring the ambiguities of contemporary society.