Your art defies classification, blending different fields. Are there unexplored realms you’d like to delve into?

Coming into fine art with a fashion background, this journey does inspire me a lot in posing questions about what people mean when they use the same word art or fine art. It is interesting also to observe that the separation or the tension between disciplines still exist within different industries. I remembered when I was still holding a fashion (design) practice, I was reading books like ‘art and fashion’ or Caroline Evans’ ‘fashion at the edge’ within which fashion scholars all identified how art and fashion has been historically separated from its definition, function and industry itself. But there are moments when categories do oscillate and become one or become illusive. Those moments to me are exceptionally alluring and holds its power.

This question does make me think a lot about if there would be realms I wanna delve into and this doesn’t seem to be an obvious one. I think I tend to use various mediums (this includes performances, music/dj, game, sculpture, painting…) to observe how my practice would take forms. However at the same time I never thought about those mediums/forms necessarily indicates my desire of moving into a new realm or being conceived with a different title besides an artist. On top of all these, I think there’s one scene I want to be more engaged with – DJ. Mixing is something to me, regardless of the limitation on what party may want certain genres of musics, shares a great similarity to archiving or sourcing. And at the same time this practice challenges the concept of originality (or “To produce”) and works with the idea of (sonic) aesthetic similarities and story telling which is very similar to fashion from my perspective. I am in this way just intrigued by how much knowledge I would learn from holding a practice like this.

Your passion for music production and the rave scene is apparent. What was your initial connection to this world?

I started clubbing or raving quite young even before I came to London to start my foundation in 2015 when I was 18. It begins with few older friends bringing me to parties which are more like clubs in China and I didn’t like it much and then I was introduced to an underground party venue in Shanghai called Shelter (current ALL Club). In that night my friend’s friend Illsee is playing minimal/dark wave/IDM stuff, not in very high BPM though, and I loved it so much. This is the first time in my life I was introduced to some very cold and industrial techno sound, and later I started my own re/search on electronic music genres. There’s of course more exploration upon venues, but I think I have always remained someone who goes after DJs or music. The more I raved the more I experienced rave as a great sense of connection within its own temporality. In 2016, Shelter hosted its last party and closed forever. On the night of venue’s closing party ravers refused to end the party and they started to dance on the street. This is unseen or unheard of in China. Although only being able to observe this through internet, I share the same sentiments of those who were there dancing in person. I think this kind of extreme energy and sentiments we all experienced through raving is what gets me going on and on.

Concepts of transformation and mutation are evident in your works. Tell us about your creative process. Are there specific techniques or tools you prefer to work with?

I had a period within my practice to be focused very much upon my own queer identity. It is during that period of time I started to look into the contemporary readings to the science fiction classics from a queer or trans perspective. It is within those studies, body horror is the genre that speaks to me the most. I guess from a personal level, along my grownup journey, I always enjoyed David Cronenberg, Alien series, within which the idea of mutation and transformation was depicted repeatedly. Also aesthetically I was just intrigued. I tried to work with some AI during this period as well, which I fed my own sourced images into it to train it and then generated few pictures I used later within the process of etching as plates. It is through this process images that’s been produced and technologies that’s been involved became blurred. Causing an object that’s hard to be identified.

Tell us about your experience at the ACall Festival in London: a glimpse of what you brought and your interpretation of the theme.

When I first heard from ACall festival and has been introduced about its theme, I thought there’s a lot shared interests upon a broader theme of “desire” and “underworld”. Although in my own practice I didn’t use the term techno-mythology specifically, I work a lot with technologies (like 3D scan, print, AI tools) as part of both artistic and making process. Those workflows have been reflected by for instance using data fed AI trained by myself as visual references for the making of a dysfunctional dec 1.

In response to all those thinkings, I thought my latest body of work around fetish, power and desire within the narrative of rave would be the best fit for ACall 3. With few months of preparation towards the show, as well as, making new works, in the end I showed both the existing speaker wall piece bpm and a new sculptural work a dysfunctional dec 2. bpm is a work I finished this June as part of my degree show which is both a wall size sculpture piece and a 10 hour long sound piece remixed from most played DJs within London’s current rave scene. a dysfunctional dec 2 is a new “variation” of its series’ first generation. Made with PVC pipes inspired by the DIY culture of home made fetish vacuum bed technique instead of its first version in metal and ReBar, this work contains my latest exploration on DIY fetish culture and further deconstruction upon references of DJ table as symbols of desire and power play.