Pretend Its A Game, Installation view
Can you tell us about your background and how you started your artistic journey?
I was born in Wuhan, China, in 1986. I graduated from the China Academy of Art in 2009, majoring in New Media Art. My early work revolved around video, exploring how perception could be mediated and disrupted. In 2014 – 2015, I took part in a residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. That experience deeply influenced my practice, opening up interdisciplinary approaches that integrated mechanics, sound, and programming into spatial installations. From then on, I began to see time and perception itself as materials.
How do you stay inspired and motivated to create new work?
What keeps me going is the pursuit of how perception can be altered, stretched, or manipulated. I’m fascinated by the tension between what we see and what we believe we see. Often, it’s the unpredictability of mechanical systems or a glitch in a sound loop that inspires a new direction. I also draw from everyday phenomena—how lights flicker in the city, how echoes behave in tunnels, or how machines fail. These subtle interferences or misalignments become seeds for new work.
Did you always know you wanted to work across different media, or did that develop over time?
Initially, I focused on moving images and videos, but over time I felt the limitations of screen-based work. At Rijksakademie, I started incorporating physical systems—servo motors, lighting rigs, customized softwares—that allowed me to work with time and perception in space. Working across media was not a conscious decision from the start, but rather a gradual evolution as my ideas demanded more embodied forms.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding moment is when a viewer encounters one of my installations then pauses—not just to observe, but to question. When people start asking themselves: “Is what I’m seeing and hearing in sync, or is something off?” That moment of cognitive friction, that doubt, is where the artwork lives. It’s rewarding to see art become a device for destabilizing passive perception.
What messages or questions do you hope viewers take away from your installations?
I don’t aim to deliver fixed messages. Instead, I want to create conditions for attention, and sometimes confusion. I hope people walk away thinking about how our sensory experiences are constructed—often by systems we can’t see. The installations invite people to consider: What is “real” in what I see or hear? Am I in control of my perception, or is it being directed by the systems around me?
What projects are you currently working on, and what can we expect from you in the future?
In 2023, I had a solo show “Pretend It’s a Game” at Capsule Shanghai, where I explored carbon-fiber sculptural systems that activate sound and light based on the viewer’s movements. In 2024, I presented “Beats” in Venice, focusing on rhythm, feedback loops, and audio-visual synchronization.
Looking ahead, I’m developing a collaborative show titled “Exit the Loop” with artist Piero Golia. It investigates cyclical structures and how algorithmic systems impact human behavior. I’m also exploring AI-driven mechanical feedback systems to create installations that not only respond to the viewer but actively evolve with their presence.
Text & photo courtesy of Feng Chen
