SINING ZHU 

I focus on exploring the unspoken intimacy of family relationships. Although strong bonds and collectivism characterize Asian/Chinese family relationship connections, they are also devoid of emotion and verbal expression. Whether conveying love, understanding, or complaining, the disappearing expression builds an invisible isolation. In The Disappeared Letters, I collected unseen letters from my peers writing to their families. I crushed and melted the letters, the soft paper was created into a “human body-shaped shell.” It is submerged in the wood container, and the ink liquid penetrates from the inside to the outside.

I am thinking about the absence of an intimate relationship and the state of concealed individual emotions. The illusion of the “body shell” protects and constraints familial bonds and self-consciousness. When the ink liquid seeps, the letter, and private feelings melt and solidify in the sculpture. Thus, unspoken intimacy is seen as a silent, fragile, contradictory, and delicate sorrow in this context.

我聚焦于家庭关系中不可言说的亲密关系的探索。亚洲/中式家庭关系中存在强烈的羁绊和集体主义，但同时也存在对于语言表达的缺失。不论是爱，理解，还是埋怨，被隐藏的表达构建了隐形的隔阂。在The Disappeared Letters中, 我收集了同年龄人写给父母无法看到的很多信件。我将信件揉碎和融化，柔软的纸张变成了像水泥般坚硬的“人体形态”的躯壳，浸泡在装有凝固墨水的木箱中，墨水从箱子里一直渗透出外面。

我思考家庭亲密关系中存在的语言缺失，以及个体情绪被隐藏后的形态。其状态是贴近人体形态的，像是人们给自己增加了一层躯壳或是一堵墙。 这个“躯壳”具有保护功能的同时也使家庭关系和自我意识产生制约。当文字融化成墨水并逐渐渗出时，文字和私人情绪在雕塑中蔓延和凝结。不可言说在这个语境下被作为沉默和隐藏，纠结和无奈。