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Contemporary Art Practice (MA)

Hazel Yizhuo Jiao

An ethereal ancient thuja tree, standing in front of a river, waterfall and flowers. the sky is black and white checkers.

Hazel Yizhuo Jiao 焦怡茁 (b.2000, Qingdao) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in London. 

Jiao's practice revolves around the intersection of more-than-human beings and technology. Born out of a sense of incessant mediation and the urgent need to reconnect with nature, Jiao’s work explores the absurdity and alienation of contemporary life within the context of late capitalism and ecological destruction. 

She graduated from the University of Westminster with First Class Honours in BA Fine Art Mixed Media in 2021, and has been studying for her MA at the Royal College of Art. Jiao has been shortlisted by New Contemporaries and ICA New Creatives.


Selected Recent Exhibitions, Performances and Screenings:

2023 Tate Lates, Tate Modern, London

2023 DELETE TV, TV Broadcast in Austria

2023 glimpse1, Staffordshire Street Gallery, London

2022 MicroActs, Hotel Elephant, London

2022 Boundless, Miart Gallery, London

2021 Before Rejuvenation, Coutts Art Centre, Shanghai




Degree Details

School of Arts & HumanitiesContemporary Art Practice (MA)Moving ImageRCA2023 at Truman Brewery

Truman Brewery, F Block, Ground, first and second floors

Blurry photo of a dog wearing headphones with a mic, it says important photo under the picture.

🪲 🍄 🌳 🌷 🌼 🪱 🪵 🌾 🐚


~what does it mean to be a human, now, among these blurry planes of existences?~


Caught between her entangled existence within the ‘natural' and the ‘virtual,’ Hazel Yizhuo Jiao is interested in the (digital) gaze / representation of the non-human worlds. Her films frequently involve calculated explorations through the chaotic expanse of online found and stock footage, confronting the prevailing patterns of image consumption in the current age of visual abundance. Her practice is deeply inspired by post-humanist and intersectional eco-feminist thoughts.


In Jiao's latest body of work, “INCARNATION: PhytaMaxX-7468756A61,” on show in RCA2023 at the Truman Brewery, an ancient thuja tree unravels its memories deeply intertwined with history, authorities, time, knowledge systems, mythology and consumption. 


PhytaMaxX-7468756A61 is a fictive health supplement made from this thuja tree. By subverting the standardised language of mass-produced pharmaceutical / wellness products, the industrialised act of severing / extracting the singular from the entangled thicket of a living whole is rendered grotesque and absurd. 

 
'INCARNATION: PhytaMaxX-7468756A61' – HD Video, 10'06'', 2023.
a vibrant colour painting of an thuja tree and immortals from chinese mythology
'~realms~' – Ink on fabric, 220cm x 122cm, 2023.
a big stack of thuja supplement bottles
'PhytaMaxX-7468756A61, Lot.001' – 90 plastic medical bottles and printed vinyl labels, 28cm x 33cm x 35cm, 2023.
 
'HOT PAIN!' – HD Video, 5'37'', 2022.
photo of an vintage keyboard and models of ants in different life cycles.
'Cycles' – Keyboard, ant eggs model, ant larvae model, ant pupa model and adult ant model, dimension variable, 2023.
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Royal College of Art

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