Siyi Zhu

Siyi Zhu is a textile designer and installation artist. She graduated from China Academy of Art in 2021(BA). After several years of learning in the field of textile, Siyi gradually found the learning direction of combining fabric color and installation that she was interested in. She focuses on the combination and exploration of unconventional materials, linking individuality and space aesthetics, and hopes to convey her thinking and passion in her works.

Growing up in an urban environment, Siyi hopes to use her unique design aesthetics to express the modern landscape she sees or imagines in her mind. While studying at the Royal College of Art, she has been exploring how to weave landscapes and think about how cities respond to the natural existence.

Selected Exhibition:

PRESTORY Art Week, Hangzhou, China, 2021

FUTURE THOUGHTS Young Artists Group Exhibition, Hangzhou, China, 2021

Bermondsey Emotional Theme Exhibition, London, 2022

WIP SHOW, London, 2023

Two pieces of rubber woven hanging fabric and me.

How to weave and create landscape?

My theme is to explore the city landscape in the form of weaving art. Landscape includes both the surrounding and the imagined. I used photo recording and virtual software to present these scenes. When the city exists in the environment, from sunrise to sunset, from the water, from the light and so on, how does it respond to these natural things? What role can weaving play in the city? I hope to weave vivid textiles through the bright colors and regular patterns of urban architecture, and think about how to apply them to spaces.

The process of studying at RCA is like a journey in a fantasy city. I started to describe the city in my eyes with the colors of personality, orange and blue. Now I continue to combine my personality and place my works in the background of the city. They can become different real products that can be applied not only indoors but also outdoors in large spaces or architectural surfaces.

These woven fabrics, which can be hung, have a variety of potential functions. People can interact with them and feel the power of color and materials in space.

The overlap of the two pieces of fabric produces a richer structural variation.

The difference in weave structure and color creates more possibilities for this fabric. Not only can they be used as partitions in a space, they can also be used to cover surfaces, such as hanging outside windows, as a product to block light and protect glass.

Medium:

rubber, acrylic

Size:

60cm x 100cm

This is a weaving installation that can stand up freely. I was inspired by the sunset colors of the city and created it. It can bend and fold freely and interact with light and shadow in the space.

How do textiles respond to the presence of nature? This is the question I asked myself when creating this piece. When the fabric exists in an environment, I observe that changes around it will also change the state of the fabric, such as color and transparency. The change of light, shadow and color is the response of this work to nature.