Xihan Zhai MFA

"Fog is a weather phenomenon. When this formless, colorless, odorless, and seemingly peaceful substance comes into contact with my body, it makes me feel curious, with a sense of wonder. From my objective world, I construct fog as a space, which contains Chinese philosophical thought. I use the body movements of Thai Chi and its Taoism water philosophy to express my art work. The aim is to give the empathy of fog experience from natural and daily life. What you see when you fall in fog?

Working with stone is a very slow process. I slowly shape it from rough to rounder and rounder shape; like Universe developed from Chaos to a complete universe of Yin Yang. The process of making a body object is the same as how water shapes a rough stone to a pebble. It is a holistic process for me to learn from water: what is desires, how to work with desires. 

When desires go further and further away, the body becomes lighter and lighter. Light like a fog.
When the objects lay on the body like pebbles on the river, the body becomes calmer and calmer. Calm like water.
Slowly slowly, water continuously shapes the stone, washes down the sharpness of the mind, the form becomes rounder and rounder. Round like the universe. 
What do you feel when you fall in fog? What you feel when you become the fog?"