Xue Ying 薛萤
The spreading wide of narrow long hands 狭长的双手伸展, 2026
red copper and brass with patina 热着色紫铜和黄铜
Each 每件 70.5 x 15 x 15 cm; 28 x 6 x 6 in
The spreading wide of narrow long hands (2026) develops from Xue Ying’s ongoing exploration of the relationship between the female body, domestic space, and the idea of home. Drawing on...
The spreading wide of narrow long hands (2026) develops from Xue Ying’s ongoing exploration of the relationship between the female body, domestic space, and the idea of home. Drawing on lived bodily experience and feminist thought, the work considers the gendered structures historically embedded within dwelling: the association of building with masculine agency, and of women with the maintenance, preservation, and nurturing of the spaces that others construct.
The work consists of a pair of elongated funnel-like forms whose apertures gradually narrow to a diameter of just 0.4 mm. Positioned on the floor or extending along the architectural structure of the space, their simultaneously bodily and architectural forms suggest a female body that is contained by its surroundings yet continues to stretch and extend beyond them.
Through this gesture of outward expansion, Xue questions the distinction between a “house” and a “home.” For the artist, home is not simply a protective enclosure, but a space produced through bodily habits, possessions, memories, and repeated acts of care and preservation. The objects that accumulate within it become extensions of the body and carriers of personal narrative, materially supporting the identity of those who inhabit the space.
In this sense, both home and individual subjectivity remain fluid rather than fixed. The spreading wide of narrow long hands imagines the possibility of a form of dwelling that can accommodate this condition—one in which the subject remains partial, transforming, and capable of extending beyond the structures that seek to contain it.
The work consists of a pair of elongated funnel-like forms whose apertures gradually narrow to a diameter of just 0.4 mm. Positioned on the floor or extending along the architectural structure of the space, their simultaneously bodily and architectural forms suggest a female body that is contained by its surroundings yet continues to stretch and extend beyond them.
Through this gesture of outward expansion, Xue questions the distinction between a “house” and a “home.” For the artist, home is not simply a protective enclosure, but a space produced through bodily habits, possessions, memories, and repeated acts of care and preservation. The objects that accumulate within it become extensions of the body and carriers of personal narrative, materially supporting the identity of those who inhabit the space.
In this sense, both home and individual subjectivity remain fluid rather than fixed. The spreading wide of narrow long hands imagines the possibility of a form of dwelling that can accommodate this condition—one in which the subject remains partial, transforming, and capable of extending beyond the structures that seek to contain it.
