Date of residency: 2021.10.18-2022.1.16

Date of the exhibition: 2022.1.1-1.16

The inaugural residency program of BY ART MATTERS RESIDENCY 之驻, titled “Questions and Answers"， involved an online Q&A session where we posed eight specific questions to interested artists. We received an overwhelming response of nearly 100 applications from artists across the country, and after careful evaluation, we selected Duan Shiyu, Li Jiwen, Li Wenjia, and Zeng Yiran as the first cohort of resident artists. Over a period of three months, they resided in Hangzhou, immersing themselves in the city's urban and natural landscapes, and embarked on a creative journey to explore and reflect on their experiences. The end result was an exhibition that spanned the entire building, showcasing their artistic interpretations of the city's diverse elements.

Residents: Duan Shiyu, Li Jiwen, Amiko Li, Jasphy Zheng

Duan Shiyu

Duan Shiyu is a multi-disciplinary artist who finds inspiration in the ordinary and seeks to capture its essence through her art. Her works revolve around the themes of self-awareness and the vulnerability of human beings. According to her, the act of living in this world is a continuous process of consumption, where individuals must expend labor, energy, and spirit to sustain their desire to explore and grow. Life can be a turbulent journey, and people often feel powerless in the face of its challenges. Through her work, Duan Shiyu aims to poetically express this sense of powerlessness while exploring the relationship between the self and the external world to find new strength. Her focus is not on finding solutions to problems but rather on gaining insight into one's own state of being.

Li Jiwen

Li Jiwen's artworks are multi-layered and incorporate various elements, including other life forms such as fungi, the ecosystem, and cultural experiences. By utilising diverse media, Li Jiwen explores the coexistence of humans and other living beings in a potential future. Her works delve into the intricate relationships between different entities and examine how they intersect and interact with one another.

Amiko Li

Amiko Li is a visual artist who employs various mediums, including photography, text, film, and performance, to express his artistic vision. His works adopt an aleatoric approach to explore the intricacies of the cultural system, as well as the ethics of language and representation. Through reenactment, exchange, and mistranslation, Amiko Li challenges the conventional ways of understanding these concepts and invites the audience to question their assumptions and preconceptions.

Jasphy Zheng

Jasphy Zheng is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses a wide range of topics, including the challenges and limitations of communication and the idea of a shared collective experience among individuals. Through a variety of mediums, such as environmental installations, unannounced performances, ephemeral sculpture, and artist's books, Zheng creates public interventions that raise awareness about social and cultural environment, both within and beyond the realm of contemporary art. By constructing these thought-provoking situations, Zheng invites viewers to reflect on their surroundings and engage with the world in new and meaningful ways.

photo by Zhang Haishen