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Tree Chuang


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Tree Chuang


2023 | Harvard Museum + South Brooklyn

Installed September 8–October 31, on the front lawn of the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, MA, Where We Belong: Tree Chuangs was commissioned by the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Three site-specific textile sculptures were created in collaboration with local communities and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. Sixty-six people ages 14–80 contributed through hands-on workshops offered by the HMSC Museum Education department. 

Photo credit: EJSP Visual | Julieta Sarmiento, courtesy Harvard Museums of Science & Culture


Installed in September behind the Sunset Park Rec Center in Brooklyn, NY. Two Chuangs were created in partnerships with four south Brooklyn organizations: Apex For Youth, Mixteca, Voces Ciudadanas, and Artyard Brooklyn. The project was supported by 2023 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grant.


2022 | GOVERNORS ISLAND

Tree Chuang, 2022, Fabric, metal ring, rope, zipper, 12ftx30inx30in 

Tree Chuang is a series of 6 site-specific textile sculptures that create multifaceted sensorial experiences throughout the grounds of Governor’s Island. Using the form of a traditional Chinese chuang—a cylindrical textile ritual apparatus commonly used in Buddhism—as a launching point, the works are both created collaboratively and showcase the unique personal narratives of NYC youths. Able to be viewed by the audience from both the outside and the inside, each structure serves as a metaphor for the duality of internal psychic space and external social space that we simultaneously inhabit as we navigate the world.  

This project is generously supported by Beam Center as a part of the Beam Camp City 2022. The organization brings together youth, artists, engineers, and educators to produce ambitious, collaborative projects.

More about the Tree Chuang project >>

Photos by Stefany Lazar


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7000SEEDS


7000SEEDS


 

7000SEEDS digs into the shared illogical paranoia of the invasive other, and unearths the seemingly scientific cause-and-effects that we take as truth–out of anxiety and the fantasy for self-sufficiency–in a global market that is tumbling towards a slow ecological collapse.

The title 7000SEEDS is inspired by the 2001 manga series 7SEEDS by Yumi Tamura, which follows the struggle of five groups of young adults after their revival from cryonic chambers called “seeds.” The “seeds” in 7000SEEDS act both as invasive species and as intrusive thoughts–they are collected, purchased, preserved, and eventually–literally and metaphorically–planted, into a tangled fantasy of doomsday survival and destruction.

7000SEEDS at Essex Flowers

Press release >>

 
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Very Sweet / TLC


Very Sweet / TLC


Very Sweet (Installation shot) at Tutu Gallery. January 20 - March 4, 2023. Photos by Max C Lee

Conceived site-specific to the home of Tutu and April as a continuation of Xinan’s last project Future Trash, everyday items including floor cushions, shower curtains, hang tags, markers, and fragrances are paired with text through embroidery, heat transfer, gluing, drawing, and writing.

The exhibition is installed around the living room, the kitchen, and the bathroom, posting as a scavenger hunt backdropped by the accumulation of private life.

Very Sweet at Tutu Gallery

Press Release >>


She gave me love (TLC), 2023

TLC series

Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) on paper, marker, pencil. Series of 20+ individual drawings on paper. 3” wide, variable length.

Playing with the uncertainty of a scientific method, this combination of color and text depicts the theme of intimate joy.

Inquire to see more pieces in this series

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Future Trash


Future Trash


Future Trash Daze Dream (Installation shot) Fabric, foam, weighted blanket, tyvek paper, wall vinyl text, zipper, polyester rug, aluminum pole, inkjet print catalogue. Photos by Max C Lee

The project explores the politically different, yet similar cultural habits that China and the US share under the influence of late-stage capitalism. Through handmade, speculative products inspired by novelty gadgets, or “Unitaskers,” I examines the heightened prevalence of the contemporary wellness market.

The project “Future Trash” encompasses soft sculptures, printed materials, installation and performance in collaboration with Miguel Alejandro Castillo

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Soil-Sand-Selfie


Soil-Sand-Selfie


I used stencils and excavated local compost soil to form phrases on the ground. The texts were culled from overheard conversations, message chats, and online comments, that focused on the theme of resilience.
I then documented the finished text with my phone strapped to a 16 feet long selfie stick stretching comically up towards the sky.

More about the project >>

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Let's Breathe Together


Let's Breathe Together


Made during the pandemic, my tiredness feels so endless, even after staying at home all day. I was drawn to movements of lying down, sleeping, hugging, and dreams about flying. These dwelling states distinguish themselves from the stressful environment outside, where oxygen and the normal act of breathing become the center of our attention. 

In this context, the act of sharing (breath and space) at home becomes even more intimate and therapeutic. Four pieces inspired by home objects - connected twin pillows, identical bed sheets with embroidered text, an inflated single mattress and inflatable tablecloth - use light and transparency to recreate the intimate details of domestic life, especially during the pandemic. 

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Living and Breathing


Living and Breathing


Inspired by Haraway’s Chthulucene, these hybrids of rugs, faux biotic human tissues and artificial scent envision alternative ways to exist in a post-human environment where animal instinct replaces traditional societal structures in an altered, feral habitat.

The works combine tufted yarn with areas of skin-toned silicone which are tattooed and grafted with human hair. Though tufted surfaces are a mainstay of cozy domestic interiors, these works are alien in form, forcing the viewer to unlearn what they know as a domestic body or object.

Living and Breathing (Alive&Alone), 3ftx6.5ft, 2020, hand tufted rug, silicone, rubber, ink, human hair 

Akin to a trophy pelt adorning a hearth, the forms are seductive yet abject commemorations of trauma. Tattooed text in the silicone reveal fragments of our civilization- tramp stamps of slang, myth- mundane phrases culled from overheard conversations. Once isolated and inserted into a post-apocalyptical context, the words become poetic warnings and mantras that survivors repeat in response to unknown fear.

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The mountains to your right


The mountains to your right


 

I approaches the theme of "Urban Camouflage and Invisibility cloak" as a (pseudo) sociologist and artist, exploring how camouflage patterns both functionally and culturally veil urban infrastructures in a Invisibility cloak, through traces left by city builders in an increasing standardized urbanscape. I am inspired by the decorations on street-side electric boxes sprayed painted to mimic the camouflage pattern. Done by workers from different sectors of urbanization, there boxes have unique mark-makings and show distinctive renditions of the concept of concealment. I consider them as works of art parallel to urban graffiti, which is nonexistent in Suzhou. Through recording and analyzing these traces combined with camouflage’s history in China, my collage work encourages the discovery of distinctive marks left by city builders, as well as other hidden details inside the ever-progressing stride of urbanization.

I see camouflage as a myth- it is a trojan horse, a graphic code and a puzzle— literally and figuratively. Like Where is Waldo?, in which the dazzling drawings were meant slow readers down for details, camouflage is this giant horse that holds layers of meaning. Menacing and comforting at the same time, it requires one to squint and think again. It is like that hunter dressed up as the prey ending up hunted by other hunters: the camouflage wants you to look away while you make an effort to look for the life behind it. 

From microwaves, GPS to computers, technology often migrates from military labs to civilian factories. This fascinating transition is a metaphor for the emergence and prevalence of an art material in a cultural period. When certain material finishes its duty in the war zone and continued to be produced in peaceful times, how can it reinvent and legitimize itself while its history continues to be relevant? Furthermore, in an environment where materials are blindingly abundant and available, how to pass on these records so the aura of the work still shines?

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Soft Collage


Soft Collage


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Quick Poems


Quick Poems


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AudioVideo


AudioVideo


 

15 minutes.

Listen to it wherever you are.

This is a 5 minute clip of a 15 minute piece.

One Train, 2019. 6mins

Production: Superstation Experimental TV Studios

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Theater Set


Theater Set