Xiaoyu Shi

My work is an inside exploration of myself. 

People try to understand themselves through understanding other beings. We learn from sun to gain hope, from the sea to be humble, from birds to imagine freedom, etc. What we see from outside is what we are, we see what we have.

I take things which are closely related to my life as subjects. Things like my memory, past incidents, furniture at home, the female body, and, the inspiration of my current works, the first bunch of flowers that I watered myself. 

The life and death of flowers happen quickly from a human point of view. From budding to blooming, to wilting or decaying, flowers always possess beauty. The energy of life radiates from this ordinary cycle of the short flowering stage. I couldn’t help but be attracted to the energy and hope to understand it.

As my works progressed, I projected myself onto the daffodils. I want to see life, but sometimes it’s hard to look at life directly. I try to see life from behind this veil of flowers.