Year: 2025
Dimensions: 33 x 85 cm
Materials: 蒲葵 woven fan, thread, hair, needles, hair pins
Fans hold extensive cultural significance in China, used in many contexts as an object serving functional, social and/or ceremonial purposes. Notably, from around the 15th century, they became increasingly valued as a decorative item, a canvas for skilful painting, calligraphy, poetry or embroidery that alluded to the user’s grace and status. Common motifs included landscapes, chrysanthemums, bamboo and others. However the mass production of modern Chinese fans are a mere echo of the past. Folding fans are churned out cheaply for tourists, whilst many plastic round fans exist as a short-lived marketing prop, carrying adverts aimed at the local community.
This particular style of woven fan has been around for centuries, made and used by commoners. An object of practicality, not beauty. Now viewed as a relic of the past, it becomes worthless in the face of modern efficiency. But when emotion and memory is tied in, it can instead become precious. This is true of my late grandmother’s fan. Here I translated my fleeting impressions of summers spent together in China, and the ten short years in which our lifetimes overlapped.
Exhibited in:
OAS Young Artists (2025)
Lisha Zhong 