Language: English
Editor: Ian Waelder
Size: 11,5 x 18 cm
Pages: 212
Binding: Perfect
Illustrations: B/W
Format: Softcover
1st ed: May 2024
Run: 150 copies
ISBN: 978-84-09-61537-7

COMPLEX BUSINESS is a publication that brings together a compilation of 212 pages of drawings from the artist, done between 2017 and 2024. These drawings have been scanned, photocopied and scanned again, offering a journey of poetic sorrow and some inner wounds, feelings of dispair and hope entangled in queer blues. If you like skateboarding and binary questioning, this book might be for you.

This book has been made in loving memory of Albert Yaying Xu (1934 – 2023).



YLÏAM is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Brussels. Their art practice is currently focused on the intersection of sound and cinematography. Inspired by the mundanity of daily life and its doom, gloom, glory, and bloom, melancholic harmonies float above bassy, upbeat rhythms. Meanwhile, a distorted guitar can be heard in a hazy distance. Just like the composition of a landscape and its changing weather, YLÏAM's approach to music is ever-changing, layered, and dimensional. They play with distances, echoes, and field recordings to give life to their words and drawings. YLÏAM shares a deep love and appreciation for collaborative and improvised creation, which leads them to elaborate various art workshops for the youth, including sonic-exploration and sound-poetry workshops. Everything is recorded, produced, and written in their DIY home studio.