Tang Yuhan

The things that are constant in my everyday life are my bed and sanitary products.
Therefore, I have special unchanging regulations and love for these two things.

The bedroom is a cube that can contain sufficent air and a bed that is clean, bright and comfortable. The toilet paper, sanitary napkins, and toilet seat covers come into direct contact with the most fragile and sensitive organs, they should also be the softest and most renowned brand ; only then would I feelI psychologically secure.

No matter how soft, thin, or ‘immaterial’ these sanitary products are, it is only at the beginning that they are noticed. After a while, such a degree of comfort is taken for granted and the products become only functional woman’s necessities . Like the bed, once one is fast asleep, it becomes a functional carrier. Therefore I am using a softness I care the most with the thinnest sense of security to produce a comfort with the same degree of care. Weaving ‘comfort and, in this case would I psychologically feel secure.

No matter how soft, thin, or ‘immaterial’ these sanitary products are, it is only at the beginning they are noticed, after a while, such degree of comfort become ignored, and completely becomes functional among a woman’s necessities ; like the bed, once one is fast asleep, it becomes a functional carrier. Therefore I use the softness I care about the most and the thinnest sense of security to produce a comfort that I also care about. Weaving ‘comfort’ and ‘security’ together, enlarging the details of the textile ; this bedroom that appears functional in the first impression is actually but a disposable ‘no problem’ plaything. 

Bo Ming

Role

Do you see words in motion or someone performing?
Writing sadness but speaking laughter, difficult to distinguish
On stage, they are Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo,and Chou [5 roles in Chinese drama]
Off stage, they are happiness, anger, sadness, joy, and anxiety.
As one becomes part of the drama, one becomes a role
All are reflected through expressions and actions.
There are twelve domains on the face: life, wealth, sibling relationships, children, wife, sickness, dislocation, servants, officialdom, property, happiness and mores, and parents, does fate determine behavior, or does behavior rule over fate?

Zhang Yi

“Amber” – a text in my elementary textbook, told the story of a bug a few million years ago. In an instant, it was covered by a drop of resin which solidified into amber and then remained unchanged to the present. This left me with a deep impression, because that which is in the amber is apathetic and lonesome.

I took my own photograph and a Barbie doll and put them into amber. When the actual me looks at the amberized self, despite the proximity, there is a feeling of being separated by many generations. My living self is trapped inside, time is dislocated yet coterminous. This work is an amusement, abstracting myself from life.

Liang Yuanwei

Salt

It is the details in life that I pay the closest attention to in my work. In all my experiments, I attempt to pass on these impressions and the reflection of these details to the audience via my work. Those things which are ignored, abandoned, or considered negative by others, for me are more meaningful and fascinating than the gaudy and powerful symbols of this era.

Salt, inconsequential and ordinary. Salt, the painful part of tears. Salt, a measure of evaporation.

The experiment with "Salt" originates from my careless imagination: every object that comes into my life possesses its own little heart; as you hold your breath and get close to it, you will hear the tiny sound of the buzzing of different frequencies.

Liang Tao

“Luofu Dream” is recorded in “Record of the Dragon Town”; Zhao Shixiong in the Sui dynasty went to Luofu mountain where he met a beautiful woman by a restaurant. Becoming aware of her attractive fragrance and eloquent words, he invited her over to eat and drink, eventually they both became inebriated. Upon awaking, he found himself lying under a plum tree, and was enticed by the plum spirit. The Luofu Dream series is a representation of the pink scene. Recreating a dreamlike scene from a rejected reality, the beautiful and shiny surface cannot replace the void behind this superficiality. Like people dreaming when they are awake, this is a daydream. Moreover, at the moment when a dream crosses with reality, the discomfort is unbearable. “Luofu Dream” was only a legend of the plum spirit, what it tries to convey is impermanence and the fact that life is like a dream, this kind of reality. One always wants to pursue objects of “beauty”, even when such beauty is pretentious, unsubstantial, disloyal, and with an industrialized numbness and lack of depth. In fact, such beauty is wicked and decadent; as you look at it, you want to love it but are scared of its mysteriousness. Such wickedness still attracts you. . . these things perhaps are intentionally leaning towards presenting wickedness, only that such wickedness very nearby, very real, even if it is in one’s dream.  

Xia Peng

 “Solitude”

Three unrelated animations, each playing in their respective corner. The entire image is played separately in each corner. You can’t watch them together, because there is only one sound, but you can’t watch them separately, because they are actually all within one animated image. As the sound of one image dies out and the other one emerges, the viewer’s vision is also being shifted. Should they be brought together? I also don’t know.

Jin Nu

My work comes from me, my childhood, my growing up, my experience, my love . . .

The real world often makes me want to escape, I want a world that is transparent, where people’s hearts can be understood at a glance, no privacy, no secrets, everything – happiness and pain - can be shared with others.

There are two works in the Exuviate series, one is “Where have the children gone”, and the other is “Feathering”. “Feathering” was done first, a fruition of my summer dreams. It is comprised of a huge piece of cotton and light figures; fairies fly between the clouds, showing off their happiness, free and unrestricted – even though what others might consider their private lives are being exposed in the light, they can still put on feathers and become butterflies. “Where have the children gone” was done later. As we grow up and look back on the past, it seems that other than memories all we have left are the material things that are passed down and superseded year after year, constantly reminding us that time is flying by. For example, the pieces of clothing that no longer fit due to our physical growth, like a snake shedding its skin as it matures.

“Growing up” applied the traditional mode of realist description. Its appearance originated from myself, a young female unicorn wandering as she’s growing up. She’s weak because she couldn’t believe in cruelty and harsh reality, but young girls will not be defeated. So, even though she’s sad, she has to maintain her elegance. Scars of youth are only narrative elements for sculpting a fable.

I think that I am a perfectionist. Beauty is what I most fundamentally require of my works and what I most endlessly pursue.

Hu Yanlan

 “Doll”

(“Doll” is made of the two moods from “Butts in the Attic” and “Tongues in Organs”, the work is shown with manuscript and porcelain)

“At the end of desire there is the cruel beginning, only in masochism can the happiness of madness be born”
concerning the consumption of sex and various subconscious state of being in an urban cultural setting.

1， Homosexuality, a poetic ambiguity is being cultivated, wordless ferocity, a desolate beauty of blood being licked

2， Heterosexuality, a drifting undetermined longing, as disassembled organs, desolate, hopeful and murmuring.

Wang Tiantian

 “Ukiyo” was originally a religious term,  roughly referring to worldly matters in Buddhism, that is, that which is seen and heard in a society.

“Ukiyo-e – Floating World” is built on the original meaning of these two words. By combining painting on canvas with traditional eastern paper folding techniques, it produces an artistic language with the appearance of installation and expresses the artist’s understanding of the living space, state of being and psyche of people living in the contemporary world. The main figure of this work is the smiley icon used on the internet to express emotions. It has maintained its “digital” character in this series, becoming a vivid symbol of people living in today’s digitalized world. The artist combines a “current” and easily recognized symbol with they symbol of a traditional eastern paper boat. Within these elements, there is an appearance of the “anime” that most young people are familiar with. Even as people’s happiness, anger, sadness and joy are being described, the humorous confusion and despair of “people floating in the world” is presented. The artist multiplies and overlays the familiar paper boats and smiley symbols; the three dimensional anime figures are placed on the surface of a narrative set against an eye-catching worldly background. In this way, he intelligently exhibits the original meaning of the “floating world”. In this narrative, multiple facets of society and people are analyzed in the hopes of leaving the audience with something to think about.

Feng Lin

Gift

In the last Spring Festival I exchanged this gift from my friend Quzi for a Wuchang fish – an old style black iron sewing machine. I brought this 30 lb thing over the Qiantang river to home with great excitement. Ever since, my dolls and I stepped from the pure craft era into a half industrialized era..

I am constantly making these dolls, until they make up a grand scene.