yufei chen
info
contact
When you see me, when will you see me?
2025, 6 bronze glided plaster sculptures in various size, 6 wooden boxes each in 35cm*35cm*28cm, 3 reflection board.
2025, 6 bronze glided plaster sculptures in various size, 6 wooden boxes each in 35cm*35cm*28cm, 3 reflection board.
When You See Me, When Will You See Me? is a side work accompanying The Residual Flame.
I recreated six animal heads based on the original twelve bronze zodiac sculptures from the Old Summer Palace. These twelve bronze zodiac sculptures were also lost during the burning, and they have been regarded as one of the most significant groups of sculptures that mark the European plunder that happened in China. The effort to find these sculptures and bring them back to public sight has always been an important mission in many Chinese people’s hearts. Today, five heads are still missing from public view.
I was only able to cast selected zodiac heads in bronze, then oxidised their surfaces to evoke a sense of long-term neglect and storage in darkness. Each sculpture is installed inside a wall-mounted box, painted the same colour as the wall. On the left side of each box, I left a narrow opening, facing a mirror positioned nearby. Through the mirror’s reflection, viewers can glimpse parts of the hidden sculptures—but never the whole. The work demands movement; only by shifting their position can the audience see fragmented or distorted views.
With this limitation, it reveals how these historical objects have been hidden and stored in the shadows. Their presence has been modified under systems of political bargaining or financial trade. In silence and darkness, their meanings and their representation of cultural memory gradually decay—lost, withheld, and overwritten by violence and imperial power.
I recreated six animal heads based on the original twelve bronze zodiac sculptures from the Old Summer Palace. These twelve bronze zodiac sculptures were also lost during the burning, and they have been regarded as one of the most significant groups of sculptures that mark the European plunder that happened in China. The effort to find these sculptures and bring them back to public sight has always been an important mission in many Chinese people’s hearts. Today, five heads are still missing from public view.
I was only able to cast selected zodiac heads in bronze, then oxidised their surfaces to evoke a sense of long-term neglect and storage in darkness. Each sculpture is installed inside a wall-mounted box, painted the same colour as the wall. On the left side of each box, I left a narrow opening, facing a mirror positioned nearby. Through the mirror’s reflection, viewers can glimpse parts of the hidden sculptures—but never the whole. The work demands movement; only by shifting their position can the audience see fragmented or distorted views.
With this limitation, it reveals how these historical objects have been hidden and stored in the shadows. Their presence has been modified under systems of political bargaining or financial trade. In silence and darkness, their meanings and their representation of cultural memory gradually decay—lost, withheld, and overwritten by violence and imperial power.
2026
Painting series: I shut my eyes through light and darkness
2025
Anthropocene
Ephemeral Withstood
The Residual Flame
When you see me, when will you see me?
2024
Spectacle of Bubbles
This is My Street
2023
An Excavation on the “British” Land
Painting series: I shut my eyes through light and darkness
2025
Anthropocene
Ephemeral Withstood
The Residual Flame
When you see me, when will you see me?
2024
Spectacle of Bubbles
This is My Street
2023
An Excavation on the “British” Land