Illusion Cities
carving on cold cutting glass
Size: variable
Illusion Cities represent visions of the cities as the individual islands, each island has layers of images emerging from the fragments of diary entries and symbolic images from the past. Nine islands are the vivid impressions from a part of cities where I have lived and traveled, both within China and internationally, including New York, Milan, Tokyo, Mexico City and Vladivostok. These personal experiences and urban elements, ranging from brief stays to several years, have been made into mixed images that reflect the unique essence of each location from memories.
Based on the present-day topography of the city, I intend to create the variegated cross-section and dangerous and primitive urban terrains by the cold-cutting work. The shadow-type carving technique is able to reflect the concept of phantasmagoria.
*works featured in the solo exhibition "Illusion Cities" in 2025 at Gallery N51 in Milan
Some notes and ideas about the exhibition
Scene:
In the centre of the wall of the main gallery is a screening of the video work The Childhood Box: a walk through a blurred vision of the same city after more than ten years in a digital simulation streetview, searching the objectif , with a reading in the background of a diary entry from more than ten years ago.
In the centre of the main gallery hall, 9 or 10 islands made of glass are suspended, representing visions of the cities, each of which emerges as layers of images (stipple/relief), including: self-portraits, city traffic and ground markings, snippets of diary entries in the local language, fragments of the body (from the work：ever), mementos, one sentence of information/points of coordinates (artwork: Crowd °), the square man figure
