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Were you here? I am here.
(Ongoing)

Two colors Toyobo Print on silk

"Were you there? I am here" is a research project that investigates the experiences of Dutch children who briefly lived in China and wrote blogs about their daily lives on an online radio station platform. The digital archives containing their displaced childhood memories and migration stories were nearly abandoned due to the radio station company's bankruptcy.

This project intends to visualize and materialize these children's memories through early internet visual art. A series of ASCII drawings on two-color Toyobo prints on silk are made, visualizing a selection of blogs written between 2003 and 2012. A box kite consisting of eight silk Toyobo prints and a video will be created in a later phase.

Supported & made passobile by & in Make Eindhoven

“This place may be heaven, or it may be hell.”
“I want to build a psychological clinic or a church, because countless times I've longed for such solace.”

From SanHe Gods spending nights at internet cafes to Sister Hong live streaming in the lobby using the fast internet connection. Gentrification continues to shrink the recreational spaces for migrant workers, leaving only a few internet cafes as sanctuaries for them to escape from reality. In this digital realm, online gaming emerges as the gateway for players to transcend mundane cycles of physical toil, liberating them in the ethereal expanse of virtual adventures. Yet, for the female migrant workers, their weary hearts find scant refuge beyond the confines of rented dwellings and crowded dormitories, leaving scarce spaces to cradle and embrace the emotional fatigue that ensues after a day's laborious work.

In Transient Nexus, gentrification weaves a network of diverse internet speeds across regions. Migrant workers seek respite in the sole nearby internet cafe, where a secluded room awaits. Behind an unopenable window and a solitary chair lies a portal for those craving high-speed connectivity beyond gaming. Here, they find solace, their souls intertwined with an ethereal realm. Transient Nexus unveils a tapestry of longing and resilience, inviting contemplation on the interplay between transience and connectivity. Through immersive installations, we celebrate the beauty of fleeting connections and the profound solace found within the confines of this otherworldly chamber.

Supported by Salwa Foundation during Internet Café Art Residency
Photography by Giovanni Salice

Ansible departs from the global roll-out of the 5G infrastructure to explore the disconnect between the speed of telecommunications and the human act of communication. The 3-channel video and installation unfold in the form of a conversation between the fictional characters meeting for the first time on an internet video chatroom, each from their own corners of the world. The work explores these themes not only within the finished piece itself, but also in the documentation of the creation process: over the course of several months, the artists left improvised scripted voice messages on each other’s phones, each in their own native language.

Collaborated with Alexander Walmsley and Yedam Ann
Supported by IMPAKT(NL), Transmediale(DE), Werktank(BE)

The audio captures my friend talking nonsense on our way back from a music festival. The interconnection among the stone, moon, sugar, and body is poetic in a whimsical way. A.I. translates her words into generative animations that blur the line between nonsense and sense. Through these surreal and psychedelic visual supplements, we begin to feel, associate, connect, and understand how she perceives these correlations.

A future visitor (A glass spinning top) travels through the time of 50°49'13.1"N 5°41'31.7”E, a place that used to be a cement factory (ENCI), a natural reserve and will develop an independent economic model in the future.

The idea centered on "Human-oriented decision making”. A collection of B&W photographs of the past, video footage about the present, and a future plan generated by AI, are reflected through the glass spinning top.

2023 Screening ‘Glued & Screwed’, curated by WYSIWYG with Dürst Britt & Mayhew, Filmhuis, Den Haag (NL)

Round-Rectangle-Table talk is a zine about introducing Asian dining cultures in The Netherlands. It consists of 5 interviews of Asians living in The Netherlands. They share experiences about their struggles, problems, Asian food, and how they introduce their culture to foreigners around them through conversation on a dining table.

RISO printing 100*180 mm
Uncoated paper 100gsm

Collaborated with Scienthya Elona
Link_Non Native Native Fair

During the pandemic, everyone was stuck in space 24/7. Besides looking outside the window, I finally paid some attention to the corners.

No one will pay attention to corners, they are the intersection of lines, the furthest point of spaces. I collected quotes from movies I watched during quarantine, and gave a quote to every corner I encountered. Corners are speaking out loud the most well-known quotes and shined as the main character eventually.

The Great Firewall of China (GFW) is the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People's Republic of China to regulate the Internet domestically. Its role in Internet censorship in China is to block access to selected foreign websites and to slow down cross-border internet traffic.

Pain In The Ass, the Great Firewall is a research project about censorship in China and digging out the hidden world with playful and sarcastic approaches like typography, publication and webgame.

Let’s break the wall is a match-making browser game reflecting the research content in a temporary and visible way. 

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J͓̽a͓̽m͓̽a͓̽i͓̽s͓̽ V͓̽u͓̽  is a video installation that unfolds a slice of tangible memory tracing back to the artist’s childhood while learning and practicing art. Her mother served as the supervising companion, overseeing the artist as she painted, played instruments, or engaged in various artistic activities during her youth. The routine was disrupted once when the artist became distracted and left the painting unfinished. Her mother then stepped in and completed the artwork.

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Water Lilies Without Roots

Ongoing

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We Are There and Here carries the research of Homesick Restaurant that is a workshop focused not only on food but the whole journey of food experience to address the loneliness among international residents in the Netherlands to bring in the home feeling in any unfamiliar environment throughout the shared moment of cooking and story-telling.

Comissioned by Lu Lin

Distributed by Jesse Presse

In the near future, wars have devastated civilization on Earth, eradicating the concepts of countries and national borders. The remaining human beings are left without a fixed place to live. In this post-apocalyptic time, an anonymous young girl decides to adopt a nomadic lifestyle, striving to survive day after day.

The State of The Migrant is a fictional film that reframes my personal experience of being a migrant. Mobility becomes the hope for an improved life, yet intermittent movements constantly disrupt the life that was just beginning to take shape. Leaving behind an address, a city, or a country without a clear understanding of the reasons why. From the outside, it may appear that the train of life keeps moving, but it is heading towards a destination called hopelessness.

Zeng Sixin (Director)
Liu Xiaojun (Cinematograhper)
Huang Xinqiao (Protagonist)
Shen Chengyi, Liu Xiaojun, Scienthya Elona, Wang Jingjing (Camera Operator)
Matteo Pirolo (Poster Design)

Thesis PDF

Eye Research Labs provide scope for a new generation of curators and artists to hone their skills. Students from different art academies and universities are asked to put together a programme featuring their own work and films from Eye’s collection. Research Labs do not follow a strict format and often result in a cultural crossover between film and other art forms.

WhiteCutChickenTypeface (WIP)
€18
Trial or licensing available on demand via zengsixinn@gmail.com