Yumeng Zang

Make popcorn with a CD player, Project movie with a printer, hold a firework show with a microwave oven… I primarily work with mechanical acoustic sculpture that transform domestic appliances and electronic devices into a brand new function beyond the original purpose for which they were designed. This interest in the less-explored side of domestic appliances is rooted in my childhood memories of playing with them when I was home alone. And it is also the memory shared by other children without siblings from my generation who were born under the birth control policy in China. This optimistic spirit was a gift for me, as it has helped me create daily poetics as a solution to life. 

The high upgrade/obsolescence speed of electronic devices makes them highly representative of the high speed life we live today. To illustrate, people can immediately tell the accurate time by looking at an iPhone 3, but other daily objects or traditional sculpture materials do not change substantially in decades. These domestic appliances were invented to replace certain types of human labour; they are also observers of, and participants in, people’s everyday life, like family members. In my practice, redefining the functions of appliances symbolises resistance to being moulded, consumed and objectified to fit a society influenced by functionalism and consumerism. By endowing life and dignity to these appliances, I invite people to think about how they situate their identities in today’s highly polarised society.