Xiaomeng (Millie) Zhang is a storyteller, also an illustrator from Shanghai currently based in London. As a child she was a detective, searching for treasures like broken keychains, unpaired earrings or old sketchbooks in every closet at home and daydreaming about the random thoughts of those objects. Even now that she’s all grown up, Millie still doesn’t change her hobby of collecting. She believes objects are able to catalyse self-creation.
Xiaomeng Zhang
I've been dreaming in a cocoon buried six feet underground since before I became aware of its existence. The dark basement is both a cold abyss and a warm womb. Behind my eyelids I heard my own echo. I shared the dream that preceded Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, which is the gate of our spiritual homeland. Although we cannot install the electric lights of civilisation in the chaotic cellar, we can still record its ambiguous outline with the help of the light of the candlestick.
Bachelard talks about the cellar as the first and foremost dark entity of the house, and how in our dreams there we are in harmony with the irrationality of the depths. He offers us a nest of dreams and a sanctuary of the imagination. And that’s also what I want to do since that summer I found out my obsession with the basement and garbage dumps.
Lovers fix their sights upon the end of the steps.
Tears nurture the unwise fruits in pupils.
爱人的双眼在阶梯的尽头守候
沾满泪水的瞳孔结成不智的果实
The headless snake summoned a miniature thunderstorm,
the flame of justice. Its tail was scorched.
无首的蛇唤来纤细的闪电
正义的火炎舔舐着焦尾
The blanket sucks childhood drawers with its fangs,
disrupting the thousandth dream of a millipede.
长着尖牙的毛毯吮吸着虚无的抽屉
惊扰了千足虫产下的第一千个梦
A rusty ghost listening to the agony of a dying old dog.
Bloodstained horseshoe is engraved with the diaries of strangers.
锈蚀的幽魂倾听着老狗将死的痛苦哀嚎
流着血的马蹄铁里镌刻着异乡人的日记
Remember, mother's liver is the last refuge.
Where your father’s eyelids conceals all secrets, engraved there engraves the with first signpost.
母亲的肝脏是最后的庇护所
秘密藏在父亲的眼皮背后，那里刻着最初的道标
The flower vase with a missing foot kidnaps its reflection in the mirror, expecting the black sun to bloom once again.
失却一脚的花瓶绑架了镜子的倒影
等待黑色太阳终有一日的盛放
This project collects people's memories and dreams about the dark underground place, and reflects on how the basement is like an iceberg hidden under the water in the subconscious mind. It uses an artificial intelligence painting program as a bridge to connect personal thoughts and the collective unconsciousness. Different from human beings, AI draws in a dream-like surreal pattern. The random structure processed by AI allows the integration of other people's words and drawn images.