Weiteng Niu (b.1995, China)
2022-2023 MA Print, Royal College of Art, London, UK.
2013-2017 BA Animation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
Weiteng Niu (b.1995, China)
2022-2023 MA Print, Royal College of Art, London, UK.
2013-2017 BA Animation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
Weiteng Niu (b.1995, China) is a Chinese artist whose practice focuses on the structural relationship between queer identity, patriarchy, masculinity and East Asian family culture, while attempting to construct a subtle and violent narrative strategy through the exploration of traditional folk art and modern decorative techniques.
Drawing-embroidery is a recently developed form of his work, a new embroidery process based on the commonalities between hand-sewn and industrial embroidery.
Niu argues that hand-sewn embroidery has always existed as a caring and feminine characteristic, and that the memories associated with it often evoke a sense of family and belonging, while implicitly pointing to family forms and gender structures in contemporary society, while the mass and mechanical production methods of modern industrial embroidery introduce a violent mode of operation that is invasive and aggressive. The resulting pictorial embroidery attempts to illuminate the plight of a community of queer, an unstable, shifting, alienated, wrestling state.
In addition, how to form, copy and transmit information through the intimate interaction between bodies is also what Niu has been exploring.