Xinyue Zhang
About
Born 2000, Guangzhou, China
Multimedia artist
Print (MA), Royal College of Art
BA in Visual Communication Design, trained in the Experimental Program of Integrated Innovation Design at the same time for interdisciplinary design practice
Statement
Whenever I’m in a shop I like to touch things.
It makes me feel connected. I especially like delicate materials.
I work with various media.
I work underneath images.
I create traces and patterns in between printed sheets.
They are the scares, the subtext, the inner vulnerabilities, as well as the conflict.
And they welcome touching.
Coming from a design background I focus more on the material reality of a printed image and its sensational aspects.
I see images as objects, and surfaces of objects.
I question the knowledge and discourses we inherited from history and tradition and their connection with my own experience and identity.
I believe nothing is concrete. We, artists, have the privilege to doubt every pre-existing building and structure in this world.
the Concept of Self
A map of the concept of self.
A fragment of my latest installation of Eros of Dust, which will be shown in the RCA graduation show 2023.
Medium: tissue paper, news print, nylon lines
Size: 50cm x 77cm
Wounded by the Lead
The myth starts with Cupid firing two arrows.
One made with gold and one with lead.
One kindles love and the other dispels it.
The first arrow shot Apollo. The second one wounded Daphne, which made her flee from her pursuer.
She turned into a laurel tree in order to escape.
I remember when I first read the story, I wept for the romantic tragedy. Now the idea of being chased by a man freaks me out.
The image on the poster is a crop from Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s masterpiece Apollo and Daphne. I took the form of a missing person poster in order to point out the absence of Daphne’s voice in the story, as well as the female's loss of voice in real life. The current gender power structure in which female is given the position of victims is no doubt questionable.
This will be an ongoing project. For who has ever been scared and wounded, and hates how it feels.
Medium: photograph
