Chengcheng Shi

Chengcheng Shi is an illustrator and designer from China. Her time at the RCA has allowed her to discover and explore the expression of visual language. She uses a variety of mediums to expand the presentation form of illustration, so that it can be inclusive and establish a channel of communication with a wide audience.

Chengcheng's illustrated picture book Subjective Time was shortlisted for the China National Illustration Biennale (2021), and her packaging design Reunion was shortlisted for One Show, Chinese Youth Creative Design Competition (2019). Her work New Language won the APENFT Best Creativity Award in 2021.

Do you suffer from anxiety in the midst of a pandemic? Where does your anxiety come from? How do you deal with your anxiety?

I am one of the people who are deeply affected psychologically by the pandemic. I am plagued with anxiety about my out-of-control life, my self-existence and the health of my loved ones. I want to provide a mind space for myself, and in my work for the audience to meet face-to-face with their inner emotions.

We look at the world outside through the window and at the same time we are looking at ourselves. The window constructs a mental world that reflects the external reality, while at the same time constructing the inner life for us. When our body is isolated, consciousness is infinitely magnified and the window becomes the mediator that carries it.

Through the window as a 'body' of mind, my practice visualizes the anxiety I felt during the pandemic and creates an emotional connection with the audience through an immersive experience.

Video of installation – A virtual window projected on a wall with a projector. The light from the projector projects an illustration printed on the clear film, allowing the illustration to overlap with the view from the window. The clear film sheet and the image are rotating together, following the sound into the different images.

There are images of trees overlaid by a projector on top of the view from the window

Installation still

Image of a woman's face overlaid by a projector on the view from the window

Installation still

A long painting of birds of prey and woods

Long scroll paintings stretching from snowy mountains to black and white abstract images

The long scroll painting extends from black and white to color

The black colour block is combined with the image to show the rising and falling tide of the waves

Drawing details

The illustration on clear film

Video keyframes

During the pandemic due to my social environment I was afraid to go out, to be in contact with people, to die and to face the death of someone I loved. These emotions tormented me so I wanted to find a way to heal myself. Inspired by Søren Kierkegaard's idea that anxiety is part of the self, I hope that by accepting my own anxiety I can offer a way to deal with anxiety for an audience that also suffers from it.

During the pandemic windows became an important portal when people were restricted from travelling and socialising. Windows became a channel to convey information and emotions to others. In this work I use windows as a way to document the landscape of my anxious mind. The work is also a way for me to have a dialogue with the outside world, which is also a form of self-talk.

We look at the outside world through the window and at the same time we are looking at ourselves. Instead of the body, I use the window to project a map of the mind.

Chengcheng Shi

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Royal College of Art