Prototype 1

The calendar on the towels

A calendar is a tool of time for the public to fill in with intimate marks according to our own
private understanding of daily life. Every second we live, we are producing housework, hair
falling, dust growing, dying skin, and sweat… The metabolism of the time is the same as the
metabolism of the human body. The towels as tools for showering, swiping sweaty, removing
the dust, drying hair, are collecting the private daily life evidence of the body.
It seems that on the surface of the towel, the concept of time is no longer abstract, but a
private, part of the body's memory. I want to put this sense of control over time back into the
viewer's body. I hope to give viewers the possibility to pay attention to specific, small feelings
about the body in the face of the grand narrative.
Prototype 2

The entry point for this experiment is the naked barge hauler on the Yangtze River. Because
they have to soak in water for a long time to pull the boat ashore, the soaked clothes and the
tension will wear out their skin, so they stretch naked. The surrounding mountains and the
rushing river form a natural private space. In the dark night, the wrinkle of the river and the
naked skin of the hauler crashed into each other. The material is a metaphor for the wrinkle
on the river and the folding of the skin at the same time.
The sponge was shaped by the metal wire inside, creating the folding on the fabric. And the
tension is controlled by the thread connecting two ends of the metal wire, when I pull it by
hand, the folding becomes deeper, resembling the power created by movement.
Prototype 3

I used three various threads to sew on the sponge, the sponge connected the threads into
one. While the thread conveys a sense of fragility, the sponge exposes the strength of the
thread. Thread is always associated with repairing, and maintaining clothes in our intimate
memory. From the beginning, I just wanted to sew a cut on the sponge for fun, it turned out
that, with the tension of threads, the folding on the sponge looked like the partial body, the
folding of flesh. Maybe I can use the material to imitate the two hugging bodies on the square
near the river.
Together with prototypes 2&3, the same thread went through different textures and objects,
giving it different narratives and effects. Prototype 1 can express more the density of materials,
and has the potential of forming the silhouette. I like the randomness of the thread pattern it
created but I wouldn’t say I like the specific color of the sponge. And I doubt the
environmental sustainability of sponges. It’s not environmentally friendly, maybe there’s the
possibility of finding other used sponges. Next step I can try to add wool to it and shrink the
threads altogether.
Prototype 4

It was made of plastic material with 3D printing. The pattern of 3D material came from my
grandfather’s chair. The use of thread resembles how he does the repairing and maintenance.
His idea of repairing and maintenance always came spontaneously and he would use the
material at present to do the repairing work, it usually gave the objects new solutions and
visuals. Instead of the perfect function and appearance, the repairing material can be evidence
of instability, and the overlay of repairing material brings the object a new stability, although
it can be fleeting, it allows the existence of the instability.
Maybe I can print more plastic pieces, and consist them into a house shape, or a stage shape.
It can be a real house size, to test the ‘instability’. And the maintenance thread may become
a new landscape.
Prototype 5

It was made of plastic material with 3D printing. The pattern of 3D material came from my
grandfather’s chair. The use of thread resembles how he does the repairing and maintenance.
His idea of repairing and maintenance always came spontaneously and he would use the
material at present to do the repairing work, it usually gave the objects new solutions and
visuals. Instead of the perfect function and appearance, the repairing material can be evidence
of instability, and the overlay of repairing material brings the object a new stability, although
it can be fleeting, it allows the existence of the instability.
Maybe I can print more plastic pieces, and consist them into a house shape, or a stage shape.
It can be a real house size, to test the ‘instability’. And the maintenance thread may become
a new landscape.
Prototype 6

Different texture torso

The entry point of this experiment is the figure of Diogenes. As a militant of public space.
Intimacy is reduced to the minimum of his own body, and the dimension of the secret and
the hidden is reduced to his body. Migration between cities has become part of the common
memory of contemporary people, and hometown has become a process within an image, a
concept that cannot be filled in with specific details in time. The figure of Diogenes shows
how the minimal definition of the intimate connects with the ideal of public space, an epitome
of contemporary migrants.
Torso is the last instant housing for the inner self, I wanted to test the visual intimacy with a
different texture. The towel is losing its resemblance, while the plastic material from the 3D
print is losing its intimacy.