Xinge Zhang
Fragile as a rainbow
2021
Medium:
wood, steel
Our installation explores life's emotional journey through layered colors, challenging the industrial aesthetic that equates strength with perfection. Growing up amid rapid urbanization, we observed how built environments encourage concealment of vulnerability—creating fractures between external presentation and internal reality.
"Fragile" confronts the posthuman condition by visualizing how suppressed emotions eventually consume us from within. Each color layer represents emotions we typically hide in technological spaces: sadness, anger, fear, and vulnerability. As visitors engage with these chromatic elements, they participate in an emotional archaeology that strips away constructed facades.
The pandemic revealed how digital interfaces both connect and isolate us, intensifying our tendency to project perfection while internal fragility increases. Our work examines this contradiction: as environments become increasingly defined by AI and automation, our need for authentic emotional expression grows more urgent.
By deliberately juxtaposing delicate materials against industrial elements, we create a visual dialogue between technological control and human unpredictability. "Fragile" suggests that within the fractures of our posthuman landscape lies possibility—when we surrender the "perfect" appearance demanded by mechanized systems, we discover power in vulnerability that no technological advancement can replicate.
Xinge Zhang
Fragile as a rainbow Video
2021
About the Artist
Xinge Zhang
Growing up in China's industrial landscape, we witnessed environments prioritizing efficiency over human connection—creating fractures between technological progress and emotional authenticity. This tension between external performance and inner vulnerability forms the conceptual foundation of our work for "Fractured Horizons."
Our installation explores how industrial legacies have shaped both physical spaces and psychological territories. The pandemic revealed this universal rupture: beneath our technological armor lies fundamental human fragility that no automation can erase.
"Fragile," originally situated in natural settings, deliberately confronts the posthuman context of this exhibition. By positioning vulnerability against industrial strength, we examine what remains essentially human when our environments increasingly reflect systems beyond our control.
Our work occupies the threshold between legacy and future—questioning how the remnants of industrial prosperity intersect with emerging ecological and technological realities. Through deliberate material contradictions, we invite visitors to inhabit this liminal space where decay and renewal coexist.
By celebrating rather than concealing vulnerability, we suggest that within the fractures of our industrial past lie possibilities for posthuman futures that don't erase humanity but transform it—creating spaces where technological systems amplify rather than diminish our capacity for authentic connection.
Xinge Zhang
Fragile as a rainbow
2021
Medium:
wood, steel
Our installation explores life's emotional journey through layered colors, challenging the industrial aesthetic that equates strength with perfection. Growing up amid rapid urbanization, we observed how built environments encourage concealment of vulnerability—creating fractures between external presentation and internal reality.
"Fragile" confronts the posthuman condition by visualizing how suppressed emotions eventually consume us from within. Each color layer represents emotions we typically hide in technological spaces: sadness, anger, fear, and vulnerability. As visitors engage with these chromatic elements, they participate in an emotional archaeology that strips away constructed facades.
The pandemic revealed how digital interfaces both connect and isolate us, intensifying our tendency to project perfection while internal fragility increases. Our work examines this contradiction: as environments become increasingly defined by AI and automation, our need for authentic emotional expression grows more urgent.
By deliberately juxtaposing delicate materials against industrial elements, we create a visual dialogue between technological control and human unpredictability. "Fragile" suggests that within the fractures of our posthuman landscape lies possibility—when we surrender the "perfect" appearance demanded by mechanized systems, we discover power in vulnerability that no technological advancement can replicate.
Xinge Zhang
Fragile as a rainbow Video
2021
About the Artist
Xinge Zhang
Growing up in China's industrial landscape, we witnessed environments prioritizing efficiency over human connection—creating fractures between technological progress and emotional authenticity. This tension between external performance and inner vulnerability forms the conceptual foundation of our work for "Fractured Horizons."
Our installation explores how industrial legacies have shaped both physical spaces and psychological territories. The pandemic revealed this universal rupture: beneath our technological armor lies fundamental human fragility that no automation can erase.
"Fragile," originally situated in natural settings, deliberately confronts the posthuman context of this exhibition. By positioning vulnerability against industrial strength, we examine what remains essentially human when our environments increasingly reflect systems beyond our control.
Our work occupies the threshold between legacy and future—questioning how the remnants of industrial prosperity intersect with emerging ecological and technological realities. Through deliberate material contradictions, we invite visitors to inhabit this liminal space where decay and renewal coexist.
By celebrating rather than concealing vulnerability, we suggest that within the fractures of our industrial past lie possibilities for posthuman futures that don't erase humanity but transform it—creating spaces where technological systems amplify rather than diminish our capacity for authentic connection.
Other featured artists
Xinge Zhang
Fragile as a rainbow
2021
Medium:
wood, steel
Our installation explores life's emotional journey through layered colors, challenging the industrial aesthetic that equates strength with perfection. Growing up amid rapid urbanization, we observed how built environments encourage concealment of vulnerability—creating fractures between external presentation and internal reality.
"Fragile" confronts the posthuman condition by visualizing how suppressed emotions eventually consume us from within. Each color layer represents emotions we typically hide in technological spaces: sadness, anger, fear, and vulnerability. As visitors engage with these chromatic elements, they participate in an emotional archaeology that strips away constructed facades.
The pandemic revealed how digital interfaces both connect and isolate us, intensifying our tendency to project perfection while internal fragility increases. Our work examines this contradiction: as environments become increasingly defined by AI and automation, our need for authentic emotional expression grows more urgent.
By deliberately juxtaposing delicate materials against industrial elements, we create a visual dialogue between technological control and human unpredictability. "Fragile" suggests that within the fractures of our posthuman landscape lies possibility—when we surrender the "perfect" appearance demanded by mechanized systems, we discover power in vulnerability that no technological advancement can replicate.
Xinge Zhang
Fragile as a rainbow Video
2021
About the Artist
Xinge Zhang
Growing up in China's industrial landscape, we witnessed environments prioritizing efficiency over human connection—creating fractures between technological progress and emotional authenticity. This tension between external performance and inner vulnerability forms the conceptual foundation of our work for "Fractured Horizons."
Our installation explores how industrial legacies have shaped both physical spaces and psychological territories. The pandemic revealed this universal rupture: beneath our technological armor lies fundamental human fragility that no automation can erase.
"Fragile," originally situated in natural settings, deliberately confronts the posthuman context of this exhibition. By positioning vulnerability against industrial strength, we examine what remains essentially human when our environments increasingly reflect systems beyond our control.
Our work occupies the threshold between legacy and future—questioning how the remnants of industrial prosperity intersect with emerging ecological and technological realities. Through deliberate material contradictions, we invite visitors to inhabit this liminal space where decay and renewal coexist.
By celebrating rather than concealing vulnerability, we suggest that within the fractures of our industrial past lie possibilities for posthuman futures that don't erase humanity but transform it—creating spaces where technological systems amplify rather than diminish our capacity for authentic connection.