The Room
2023
The world before my eyes unfold, and time's layers amassed. Behind the "present moment," there are numerous figures swaying—though they may be concealed, they truly exist. People and things that won't reappear often leave behind subtle traces—tangible and ingrained in memory. These are the origins of all stories and also the tails of stories in the "here and now".
I am never living in the here and now, but on top of the accumulation of everything that has gone before. My current practice revolves around the interplay of memory and space, seeking to convey a certain feeling when memories are formed and recalled. In a familiar space, I experience my own past, and within an unfamiliar environment, I embrace the memories of others.
A place not only occupies space but also encompasses time; just as memory exists not only in time but also possesses spatial dimension.
In addition to the photographs of the room, I currently have two other sets of photographs of memory and space. The first is River, a glass of water in a drawer, and the second is called Drenched, where there are pearls and oysters and my t-shirt, and I think it's like - Oyster resting in dreams (牡蛎憩息在梦中）.
This is a series of photos taken with a 4x5 large format camera, I tried to present them in video and various print methods, here are some more (probably failed) test to share with you ...... In the final form of the exhibition, I used wooden sticks up to two metres high to build a space, four photos about the room and silhouettes were printed on translucent curtains, and I also arranged chairs, drawers and other objects as containers for displaying the rest of the photos, I really like the one nailed on the wall with a separate drawer (thanks for the idea of yizhi), and thus, a space was recreated.
In the summer of 2023, I built this work for the first time, and I called the series Sharp, Quiet.
It was a car park on weekdays, a food market on Sundays, and also the venue for my graduation show - there was something serious and absurd about the graduation show and the uneven, dirty ground all at once. Each of us sweated and frowned as we carefully set up the exhibition, and unfamiliar faces and noises became part of my summer.
For me, the value of this exhibition as a memory far exceeds the value of exhibiting it, thanks to the people who supported me - An, Lyle, Xuan, Yizhi, my tutor Catherine, and the people who viewed my work seriously. My time in London was twisted and blissful, thanks to my friends, you smoothed my life out once again, over and over again.
Thank you for the work that marks the end of that time, you were not that bad：）
RCA2023 Show, Truman Brewery, London E1 6QL.
The Trees
2022
Sometimes I want to be a plant as I always want to run away from something.
Humans and plants have always been closely connected, not only because of their ecological proximity, but also because humans have always given plants too much meaning.The forest is mysterious, unknown, sacred and can be imagined. However, when forests are stripped of the "symbols" given to them by humans, perhaps their bare existence itself has a meaning that is not "humanised". In this project, I put a mirror cube into the forest to show the forest as it is. Trees don't need words.
The Body
2021
The Escape
2021
Every summer, my grandma would hang the bamboo curtain at the door, and the act of pulling it open became the act of entering the house. In the exhibition, I put the original photo behind the curtain, as an interval between reality and memory, between you and me.
Exhibition at M P Birla Millennium Art Gallery, London W14 9HE
2020-2023
*Shot for Ying Chen’s Ceramics work
*Models: Kejia, Yichun, Yiru