About me
                SHIHUI
     About me
   SHIHUI    

︎Documentation 💾️


INSPIDATION

「Four youths determined to die」

On April 4, 2023, four young people jumped off a cliff at Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie. The four youths were all agricultural workers, working outside for years and not in contact with their families. Unlike the impulsive suicides of student groups, the deaths of these four rural youths were the final choice after much deliberation. They left simple words, prepared pesticides, and made the long trip to Tianmen Mountain. Such a tragic death made me reflect on the fact that it seems that in China, farmers have always been an image that has been othered and beautified, and the migrant workers, moreover, are a group that has been forgotten by the whole society. Their lives and spiritual world deserve the public's attention.


WHO ARE THEY





Spring for Suicides


Spring is not always a time of growth and vitality, and studies have shown that it is the peak time for depression and suicide due to circadian rhythms and other reasons. Many depressed people survive the long winter months but choose to end their lives in the spring. The same is true for many migrant workers and vagrants, many of whom die without even waiting for their families to claim them and disappear silently into the city.


Who are Smarts

「Colorful Flowers Growing Out of the Dust of Inferiority」

The Chinese word“殺馬特" originates from the English word SMART, but this group in the mainstream perception is the opposite of the SMART's original meaning, the mainstream groups regard them as vicious, low aesthetic, with some kindof irony, ridicule.

The official development of Smart in China beganin 2008, combining Japanese visual and European and American rock appearance style, and imitate the Japanese visual rock band exaggeration.



THAIR DILEMMA


For the



INCOMPATIBLE IDENTITY


90% of Smart are new generation migrant workers, most of Smart and those four youths who suicided in Tianmen Mountain face the same dilemma, but they choose to use colorful hair and exaggerated appearance to distinguish themselves from the emotionless machines, exploding into vivid vitality in the desperate situation.


FIELD WORK

「Role Play」

When I first learned about this group, I could not understand the significance of their outfit in such an exaggerated appearance, I was curious about what their inner activities were like, so I dressed up as them and walked among the crowd ....When I first learned about this group, I could not understand the significance of their outfit in such an exaggerated appearance, I was curious about what their inner activities were like, so I dressed up as them and walked among the crowd ....




CONCEPT


Through observation, I found that grass in a way shares infinite similarities with the Smarts as a group.



-Grasses are fragile, insignificant and can be blown over by a gust of wind. But grasses are also full of life and energy, drawing nutrients and growing in their own corner.

-I have captured the sounds of several different types of factory line work and blended them together. These sounds are harsh and monotonous, but it is the sound that is heard for long periods of time in the environment where Smarts works.

WIND AND SOUND


I wanted to make the wind an important character in the work, the wind represents the city and the factory, it makes the lives of the Smarts go down and out of control, and sometimes brings them to their bottom. But it also gives the Smarts their own colour.

I have captured the sounds of several different types of factory line work and blended them together. These sounds are harsh and monotonous, but it is the sound that is heard for long periods of time in the environment where Smarts works.



At the same time I found some songs that Smarts skate and dance to in the ballroom, they are upbeat, free and uninhibited. It's one of the few mental paradises that Smarts can go to during their rest time, and I bridged the two completely different sounds together to serve as a BGM for the whole installation.

SKETCH


I mixed grass with the gorgeous hairstyles of the Smarts and chose a few of the most frequent colours and forms in the Smarts' hairstyles to weave those beautiful hairs into a colourful grass.

SETTING PROCESS



︎Lastly, thank you so much for your browsing, it was a pleasure to share this project with you ! 👋️😋️