Artist's statement
The tactile attachment

Hand making through collage construction is at the center of my art practice. For me, a sculpture is as much an exhibited object as it is the embodiment of continuous action. It is the result of a series of physical expressions of tactile sensations.

In my recent work, I focus on shoes as my materials. In the piece Three Old Four New, I assemblage three old shoes and four new ones, which gives the title. As a reference, “Four old four new” was a champion to destroy the old culture and establish the new during cultural revolution in china, 1968. By demolishing a huge amount of traditional objects, architectures and arts, modern Chinese successfully cut our cultural blood from our ancestors who created one of the most delicate civilizations. This scene of cultural ruin and the tone of the brokenness and the brutality are the background to see the big success of China during recent two decades in economics and as the most important role for industrial production in this contemporary. Shoes remind me the standing on the ground, the presence of human being; they can be the symbol of journeys. Shoes are one of the most common export products that made in China and sold globally. My shoes are so close to my body and many of them have accompanied me in my life journeys that from Beijing to New York, then to London. I use shoes collected from my friends, family and myself, or bought from those super retail merchants. In object making, shoes are cheap materials but provide surprisingly abundant variety. I never could predict how many layers, colors or structures a pair of shoes can provide until I shovel their surface off. The deconstruction leads me to an exploration of construction with new forms, by doing which I have a chance to retrieve the lost memory, story, and reveal the hidden reality.