“Surplus Value” is a series of installation and video work which has started in 2020. The origin idea came from a definition in Oxford English Dictionary, “the free world: the noncommunist countries in the world.” As a Chinese artist who living in the US during the pandemic, I started to question the authenticity of the common knowledge we have learned and challenge the authority of it. Who defines the words? When were they be defined? How can we change them in the current circumstances?

I’m interested in using medical equipment to represent the digesting and reconstructing process of the different culture. Also finding the value through the leather scraps, which I see them as people on the edge.

In some of the work, I blended the terra cotta clay with shredded dictionary pages. Terra cotta has a long history in the human society. Many ancient cultures in the world have been constructing their civilization with it. The color of it also brings the flesh feeling to the audience and reminds the anonymous people.

To challenge the authority and build new definition system, I use shredded pages from the dictionary to encourage people, especially people of color, to construct a new language and culture system for themselves.